


Shipwrecked

by Kije999



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: AU, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Shipwrecked, Cannibalism, Dangerous, F/M, Gore, Horror, Romance, Supernatural things, Survival, Survival Horror, deserted island, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-21 19:53:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2480426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kije999/pseuds/Kije999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU-It was supposed to be a vacation for Beth. But her relaxing vacation soon turns into a scary adventure as the storms on sea pick up. After blacking out she finds herself alone with a redneck mechanic named Daryl that worked on the ship. Together they must find a way back to civilization while searching for the other survivors, because Beth keeps  believing they aren't the only ones. Soon enough they discover something is very wrong with this island and must keep themselves alive. Bethyl Slowburn. Discontinued</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stranded on the Beach

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!! I had this idea for a while now and started working on it. I will add characters as soon they are present in the story. Same with tags(I just have cannibalism added because every stranded on a island has a form of cannibalism in it :P). It's still figured out. It's heavily inspired by Tomb Raider 2013, except there won't be any ancient sun queens that steal young girls bodies and use it as a hostess...
> 
> It's not beta'd, sorry....

**Chapter 1**

Stranded on the Beach

* * *

 

Beth her head hurt when she woke up from her slumber. When she opened her eyes she noticed she was looking at the clouds of a remaining storm. The blonde let out a small groan and cradled her sore head. She propped herself up from the surface she lay on. It was wet sand, she lay on a beach in soaking wet clothing. She looked at her surroundings, driftwood had scattered around along with metal scraps and a large amount of shipwrecks.

"What happened?" she licked her cracked lips and sputtered out the sand she'd gotten in her mouth. She brushed a wet strand of hair from her face behind her face and wiped the sand from the left side of her face.

"A storm," she quickly turned her head around to face the source of the sound and saw it was one of the crew members on the ship she was on. "We're stranded on this island."

As thunder roared nearby above the wild sea, she noted her surroundings once again. Now she had turned towards the man she saw tropical woods behind him. Suddenly she saw flashes of what happened. She was on deck and there were men yelling at each other and passengers running in fear and then a large wave rocked the ship and Beth realised that must have knocked her out. What happened to the other people on the ship, she realized. Where were they, had they hidden out in the woods?

"Are we," Beth trailed of and swallowed a grief though. "Where are they others? We can't be the only survivors."

"No idea," the man grunted out and pulled her up after extending his arm out to help her get up. "There's the boat," he pointed towards the large ship that lay smashed against the cove of the beach. "Besides that, couldn't find any tracks of other people."

"It's still raining, their tracks must have washed away," she threw back. "Maybe there are people left in the wreck. Hurt and can't get away."

Beth started walking towards the remains of the shipwreck. "We can't be the only survivors out here."

Her feet sunk slightly into the soaking sand as she reached closer to the ruin. Before she knew it the man grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?" she pulled her wrist back and frowned at him.

"You don't know how dangerous it is, right?" he frowned down back at her. "That thing there is a watery grave once you enter that thing."

"But there might be people in there!" she argued back, flailing her arms in frustration.

"Yes, might," the man pushed extra pressure on the word, and continued scolding her. "Ya really wanna risk yer life for others?"

"We can at least scavenge a bit, right?" she tried. "Maybe there's a radio that works and food."

He frowned and looked at the wreck beside them. "The right side looks steady, beyond that…looks like it will see Davey Jones's locker soon."

The blonde couldn't help but giggle at that response and she started looking for a way into the ship. "What's your name?" she pulled a crate aside and started climbing on it. "We're probably going to be staying together for a while…so yeah, I figured out knowing each other's names would make it easier."

"Daryl," she heard him hoisting himself up into the remains of the ship as she started looking around her surroundings. She noticed she was in the hallway she walked through a lot, meaning her room is nearby.

"I'm Beth," she looked around, room #201, room #202, room #203, she noted them all and swallowed the lump in her throat and licked her suddenly dry lips. She wasn't close to those people but she talked to them. What had happened to them? She wondered as she stopped in front of her room 215.

Beth shared her room with a girl from Wisconsin. They didn't talk much, there wasn't much in common between them. Last thing Beth remembered she herself was in the hallway towards the cafeteria and then she bumped into someone. The ship rocked suddenly and Beth remembers running away and that's it, she can't remember it. She must have gotten a blow to her head as she ran into something, making her black out. But her roommate was in their cabin, who didn't feel like eating. Did she get out? Was she still there?

"Daryl?" she called out standing in front of the now bruised door, unsure of getting into there. Beth heard her companion grunt out a yes. He's probably annoyed by me, she thinks as she grasps the slightly damaged handle. "I need to get my backpack from my room, but…" she trailed off. The thought of thinking her roommate is dead stopped her. Beth didn't want to think of it. And it looked like Daryl dismissed her and continued his search

Beth took a deep breath and opened the door. The shock of the rocking from the waves and the crash had the room look like a huge mess, everything was thrown around. The small windows were shattered and that may have been the cause for the shallow water on the floor. Beth quickly glanced toward her bed and noticed her backpack in front of it, half in the water. She let out a startled yelp when her boots hit something soft.

Footsteps hurried from the hall toward her. "Ya 'kay?"

Beth collapsed on the floor and looked in shock at the dead body of her roommate. The girl's head was bleeding a lot.

"Must've cracked her skull," Daryl spoke and pointed to the desk where a large bloodstain coated the wood. How can he be so calm? Beth wondered.

Beth stood up and bent down towards her roommate and placed her hands under the dead girl's arms and started to drag the girl toward her bed. She looked at Daryl. "Help me put her on the bed."

"Why?" he sounded confused, like bothered at her manner.

"She doesn't need to lay on the floor," Beth replied and tried to pull the girl up on the bed. "I can't do it alone."

Daryl grumbled some words under his breath, something Beth couldn't make out and dismissed it. He walked towards Beth and hoisted the dead girl in his arms and placed her on the bed wiping the blood on his hands on the sheet. Beth wiped a little blood and tear stains away with a piece of cloth she found on the floor, soaking in the sea water.

"Her eyes creep me out," Beth shuddered, staring into the lifeless, almost doll-like eyes of the girl.

Daryl grabbed the blanked from the bed and covered the girl. "There." And headed back to the hallways.

Beth quickly grabbed her backpack and felt another shiver run down her spine as she exited the cabin. She saw Daryl walk up further from her and she quickly walked towards him, trying not to fall as the water tries to slow down her feet.

"We need food," Daryl said and leaped over a knocked over coffee table

"But the cafeteria is at the other side of the ship."

"The kitchen isn't."

On their way to the kitchen Daryl found another bag and much to Beth's dismay, more dead bodies. Beth had to swallow a second before continuing.

"You okay, kid?"

She shook her head. "It's just… How can you stand the sight of this?" she mentioned to the chaos and corpses.

"Used to it, that's all."

Beth remained silent and occasionally let out a deep breath to get rid of her nausea. She recognized most of the faces here, even though she barely spoke to these people.

"C'mon Beth, the sooner we're done here the sooner we can get of this graveyard," his words were bitter. He didn't want to be here in the first place, she remembered.

Soon enough they found the kitchen, luckily for them –mostly for Beth- the cooks had their break and were absent from the kitchen when the ship crashed. Quickly Beth started placed canned food into her backpack and found some bottles of water in the back, some of them had fallen over and the plastic broke, letting the fresh-water mix with the salty seawater.

"Found a first-aid kit," Daryl spoke loudly, just outside the kitchen. "Must have kept it here for the clumsy clerks."

"Please show a little respect," which was her only reply.

Her companion tsked and brushed her off and walked back from where they came from. "We should go, there ain't no radio close here. The maintenance room is too dangerous -probably sunk, and the captain's radio is probably broken, it's on the other side of the ship."

Beth nodded, she wanted to get away from here. There are too many dead around here for her liking. "Let's go."

Soon enough they were on the shipwreck beach again, a storm raged above the seas and headed toward the island. The dark clouds illuminated with lightning and the wind blew water and sand into her face.

Daryl grabbed her arms and started dragging her toward the forest. "We need to find shelter for the night."

And rain began to pour down.


	2. The Rain is Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They found shelter for the night and realize food is an urgent matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is chapter 2, we're slowly getting out of the introduction! And thank you so much for the kudos, follows and comments!
> 
> Not beta'd, sorry...

**Chapter 2**

**The Rain is Cold**

* * *

 

Beth stared at the flaming embers of their fire and tried progressing today's events. It felt –and probably is- too much to progress. She glanced at Daryl, who was trying to keep the fire alive, the weather didn't make it an easy job. Even though they were semi dry underneath a large ridge, which hang above another ridge. So basically they were high and dry just above the jungle. Daryl explained less wild animals could get to them.

Beth sighed and reached for her backpack, placing it on her lap. "We should have looked a little longer. I'd love to have a dry pair of clothing, right now."

She heard her companion grunt in agreement and mentally sighed. Of all people she could have been stuck with is has to the most grumpiest and silent person ever. She opened the zipper of her back pack and took out her journal –which she luckily put in a plastic bag back before the crash. Beth smiled sadly as she traced the large, curly letters that was written on with a black marker. 'Beth's Adventure Journal'. It was a gift from her sister Maggie before Beth left on that cruise. She had laughed at Maggie's gift, saying she's only going on a vacation. Oh she shouldn't have jokes about going on a very dangerous adventures

Beth put her hand deeper into the damp bag and finally found a pen, hoping the water hadn't done much damage to it. Opening her notebook on the first blank page she encountered and wrote in big letters-after testing the pen in the corner of the page- 'Shipwreck Survival Day 1' above the on the page.

_I don't know how to start… Well, um okay... I know this isn't the first page but I'm Beth Greene and I'm shipwrecked on an Island somewhere in the Pacific. I was on a holiday, away from ex and the stress he caused for me… You can read that on the previous pages._

_ I woke up at the beach today, or rather, one of the beaches here. There were a lot of wrecks there and probably more on the other beaches. Some date from maybe centuries ago! I'm not alone, I'm with one of the ship's other passengers. I have no idea what happened to all the passengers, my companion, Daryl, says most of them must have fell into the sea and drowned. We scavenged the wreck a bit, there were a lot of dead people there. Remember when I wrote about my roommate, Sandra? Well, I found her dead on the floor of cabin, she…she cracked her skull on the desk. The thought of it makes me sick, I saw her alive maybe less than twenty-four hours ago, I don't know I've lost track of time here. But that doesn't matter, I know there must be other survivors of the shipwreck here, I know. It's impossible that just us two got out unscathed. Well almost, my head still hurts from the fall. Someone saved me back on the ship, I think it's Daryl, but I'm not sure. I'll ask him. Also, currently sheltering under a ridge. We're dry, but it's cold and clammy, Daryl has trouble getting the fire on. I hope it'll flame up soon, I don't feel like dying of hypothermia out here on a deserted island. _

_ If you ever find my Journal that means I lost it –or I'm dead, which probably won't happen. I hope… Anyway, please send it to the address I wrote on the inside of the cover, so my parents and siblings -and maybe me, will get it. _

_Love, Beth_

Beth sniffed and rubbed her cold arms after placing the journal and pen back into the plastic back before shoving it into the backpack. She's freezing, the fire was barely providing heat, especially in her soaked clothing.

"How it going with the fire," she didn't mean to sound this grumpy, she just cold, her clothing are damp and mosquitos are feasting on her flesh. Yeah no wonder she's grumpy.

He blew on dying embers, trying to keep it alive once again. "Is there some more dry twigs around you, it'd be easier if the woods weren't so damp."

Beth turned her upper body around and looked behind her, scanning the area for some more twigs. "Wait I think I see some thicker twigs there." She pointed towards the small withered bush that grew out under the ridge and started breaking it off. "It's a dead plant, does that work?"

"Work fine," he spoke lowly and looked up at her. "Never made a campfire before?"

The blonde bend down and pulled some more withered plants and flowers from the ground. "This is the last around here."

"Let's hope it works then," Daryl started placing the twigs into the fire, not caring that his fingers touched flames for a moment.

In the end Daryl managed to make a decently large fire and Beth sat in front of it, her clothing was drying slowly. The rain had stopped pouring down like buckets and slowed down into a drizzle. The sun, barely visible behind the grey clouds, began to set and soon enough they were left in darkness.

Beth poked into the ground with a stick she found, she's hungry, tired and still cold. Her eyes shifted from the fire towards Daryl who's trying to make one of the cans of soup warm. They had agreed to go slow on the food and share, or they'll run out of it soon. Couple minutes later he told her that it's pretty warm now. Beth took out the two spoons she found in the kitchen and gave one to him as she scooted closer.

"Once the storm settles down, we can try to look for fruit and vegetables," Beth swallowed the soup, which was a delight to her. "And you said you can hunt?"

Daryl nodded and kept eating. "I could set some traps with the rope I found, would be easier if I had a weapon. I use a crossbow back at home."

Beth sniffed and looked at the forest in front of them. The rain had stopped but wind still blew merciless over the treetops, shaking them.

"Try to get some sleep. The storms looks like it settles down, let's investigate tomorrow," Daryl said. "If we're lucky, maybe we'll find some stuff from other people. Like you said, we aren't alone here. And not just ours, but others as well."

Beth nodded and placed her spoon into her bag and placed it down close to the fire and laid her head on it. "What about you," she yawned, today's events were too much for her.

"I'll keep watch," Daryl looked at the wilderness again. "You never know what's hiding there."

* * *

 

"Did you save me back at the ship, in that hallway? I remember getting blacking out and someone saving me?"

It was the first thing Beth said as the pair headed out into the rainforest. It was very lively after the storm that raged over the island last night. Beth heard birds chirp and many more animals making noise. She smiled, it was so peaceful. Beth found some edible berries earlier and they were snacking on it as breakfast.

"Hmm, that was me."

Daryl remained a man of few words, rarely speaking full sentences at her. "Ya hit yer head pretty hard."

"How…how did we get out," Beth bend down and looked at another plant. A smile grew on her face as she saw that it were cassava roots.

"Fell overboard after the ship split, got lucky I guess and washed ashore."

They continued walking for a thirty minutes now, looking around for another shelter, food and other survivors, Beth kept insisting. She had collected so many fruits and plants that her backpack almost overflowed. She told Daryl that they might find other survivors and they would be hungry. There had been an uncomfortable silence between them for five minutes now, well Beth found it uncomfortable. Daryl was pretty relieved by the silence, but still sensed the young woman's discomfort.

"How did you know that stuff was medical?" Daryl asked, remembering when she picked up that strange plant, Rauv-something?

"My daddy's a vet, he has a large amount of biology books around, and I got bored a lot when I was kid and read them. And my momma knows a lot about plants and herbs!" he snorted at her enthusiasm and saw that she started digging her fingers in her hair. Her face turned into a grimace.

"My hair feels so gross, all that salt water and sand..." she shuddered and rubbed her fingers against each other, shaking off the sand grains. "I never liked sand, well as a kid I did for a while. But I got older and now it feels gross…"

"Not fond of it as well, it gets into everything," he replied.

"It's in your pants, isn't it?"

"Hush it, kid."

Daryl squinted his eyes as he noticed something hanging in the tree not far away from them. Beth was completely oblivious from it and he gave her a nudge, beckoning her to go into another direction.

"I see something, stay behind me."

Beth looked at the man who walked in front of her and smiled, she'll make it alive out of here. He'll keep her save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do think? Please comment, I'll work harder! I'd like to hear your thoughts!


	3. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo approached the thing Daryl had seen in the tree, maybe they should have stayed away. Or not...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is the third chapter! It's starts to get a little gory and the horror is starting now. And thanks again for the follows, kudos and comments! Also, the chapters are getting longer! Yay!!
> 
> Not beta'd, sorry...

Beth watches her companion with curiosity as he halted his pace, blocking something from her view with his large frame. After Daryl saw something, he told her to stay right behind him. He led her through the bushes, slightly hiding in the leaves. She also been told to be very quiet, her footing and all.

He let out a groan and stood up straight from his crouching stance. "There's no danger now at this moment, but it isn't something ya wanna see."

Beth frowned as he turned around and looked at him in confusion. "What is it?" a slight hint of fear in her voice, masked with confusion. Didn't matter he heard it anyway.

"Oh come on Daryl," she threw her arms in the air, frustrated by the fact that she didn't know what was going on. Feeling a little daring, she pushed past him. There was a little house, made out of…concrete? It's old and fallen victim to nature. Vines grew all over the small building, along with grass and other vegetation. It's old, but not ancient, it had been built here a while back ago. Beth didn't get why Daryl didn't want her to see this. Despite the corrosion, the scenery, it was beautiful.

Then she saw it. There was a tree beside the little building, half its branches above the concrete. On a thick, sturdy tree branch hung a man. Or his remains, it was merely a badly skeleton clad in a tattered uniform. The fact that he hung  _in_ the tree, on the branches with vines growing through the frame keeping on the dying branch.

Beth stared at it in fear and disgust.

Though, that wasn't the horrifying  _thing_  Daryl was implying. No, just a couple feet away from the hanging carcass lay a badly decomposed corpse. Half of its face had rotted away, showing the bone of its jaw. Two limbs are missing, left arm and leg. The stomach area was a mess, even in decomposition. The remaining, dried out organs spilled out of gaping hole dying the grass in a sickly deep brown colour. The clothing were, like the other corpse tattered, covered in dried blood. Around the mangled corpse, grass had died as well, leaving a sombre colour around there. A terrible smell discharged from the corpse.

Beth felt bile rise up into her throat, the image burned on her mind. Her breath hitched and a choked up cry escaped her lips. Wobbling on her legs, she backed away only to bump into Daryl, who caught her when her legs collapsed under her. Daryl sat her down on the ground and made sure she wasn't looking at the gory scene that displayed just a couple feet away from them.

"Told ya," he shrugged at the panicking girl that sat on the grass, trying her best not to vomit up her small breakfast. "Doesn't look old, maybe a week or two old."

Beth tried to collect herself, finding it strange she reacted so heavily toward the dead hanging around. Just yesterday she was surrounded by them and she barely flinched. Sure she felt a lot but her mind couldn't progress it. A strangled sob escaped from her lips, it was all real. Those were actually dead people, not the kinds you see on television. She just saw a horrible corpse. The sickness settled in her stomach increased and she threw up her breakfast in the nearest bushes.

"Ya okay," she heard Daryl ask, it sounded forced.

"Give me a minute," the blonde breath out, wiping the saliva and vomit from her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Gonna investigate," he walked away from her, closer toward the horror.

Daryl grimaced as he stepped closer towards the remains. And quickly glanced at it, he needed to know what got this man. The arm was gnawed off, he couldn't see what did it. Probably a large, scavenging animal looking for a snack. The leg though, it looked different. Despite being slightly gnawed on, had small traced that looked like it had been cut off with a sharp object.

He swallowed as he looked at the stomach, upon closer inspection it looked like it had been torn open. Daryl guessed it had to be the cause of death. Most likely caused by an animal or at least he hoped.

He turned towards the skeleton in the trees, how it got up there he didn't want to know. The bones are old and Daryl noticed the uniform he wore was WWII American Uniform. He had recognized the building as a bunker earlier and connected the dots between the fallen soldier and the bunker, this place was inhabited by American Soldier during the Pacific War during WWII.

Then he spotted the recurve bow hanging in the tree beside the skeleton remains. Well, that made things easier if he managed to get it.

"Beth, I need ya to climb into that tree and get that bow," he felt a little guilty for making her do this, poor girl is still silently crying behind him. "I won't be able to do this, the branches will break under my weight."

Beth nodded. "Okay." Her answer was quiet.

The blonde carefully walked towards Daryl, trying not to look at the corpse on the floor. That corpse had been a living person only a couple weeks ago and Beth felt horrible towards the fallen man.

"I'll give ya a boost up," Daryl hoisted the young woman up by her legs and Beth grabbed the first branches of the tree, shakily attempting to climb it.

"Catch me if I fall?" Beth asked as she reached the height of where the bow lay. Daryl grunted a reply.

On shaky legs and balancing arms she carefully walked on the thick branch, sucking in a breath as the wood cracked under her weight. She thanked her momma for signing her up for gymnastics when she was a child. Now came the tricky part, get the bow from the skeleton. Beth grimaced as she pried the bow out of the bony hand. She felt disgusting, touching a real skeleton, the remains of a dead person. A person who never got a burial. A person who never saw his friends and family again.

But as Beth took the bow, she lost her footing and started falling forward with a loud shriek. Pulling the bow with her also forces the skeleton to fall. She dropped the bow in repulse, scared what just happened. As the skeleton's upper half fell on the ground hard, Daryl caught her before she hit the ground. He held her tightly, and Beth believes it would bruise.

"Well, that was some crazy trust exercise. But hey, we got the bow," She pointed at the wooden bow next to the skeleton's upper half. "And I touched a skeleton, like real bones." She shuddered.

Daryl placed her back on the steady ground and with legs still shaking she thanked him.

"Ya had no problem with that girl yesterday, now ya lose it over a stranger."

That was just mean, Beth thought and pouted. He was right, she saw more dead bodies yesterday. "I don't know," she muttered out.

He grunted a reply and started looking around. "I need arrows, or at least a knife to make some."

"Maybe in the house?"

"It's a bunker. Probably from World War two."

"Oh."

Beth started walking to the concrete building and tried opening the bunker, but the handle was so rusted it broke off. "Dang. How do we get in now?"

Daryl handed her the bow he already picked up from the floor and looked at the door for second. "Kick it open, looks lose."

And it didn't take long he had gotten the door open. He entered the small building and the smell of dust and rotting of wood his nostrils. He heard Beth follow him and cough as she entered.

"Let's take a quick glance through everything."

Beth nodded and started searching a desk, she took a second and her eyes fell on a journal, darkened with age. She opened the journal and skimmed through the pages. The writing was still visible, the font was old but readable.

_My men start to feel uncomfortable now. It's now a couple of weeks that we're shipwrecked on this island. We lost a few in the ocean and another hand thanks to the island. I don't know what's wrong with the island, but it feels like we're watched._

_Collins said he saw something attack Jackson before he ran, Jackson is gone and so is Smith, who went to take a piss. Never came back. Dead. The_ _**thing** _ _Collins described spooked the men. He said something about a demon, a thing that shred Jackson apart and ate from him. He's been talking gibberish for the past two days now, talking about the thing will get us all. It'll only be a matter of time. I told we should guard ourselves, shoot anything that comes near us and don't go off alone. We got plenty of ammunition left, but I fear it'll run out soon. Like I said, they're scared and even shot a bunny._

_I keep telling myself I don't believe in ghost stories, but I, too, begin to get my doubts…_

_Regards,_

_Captain A. T. Jones  
October 1943._

A shiver went down Beth her spine, suddenly feeling scared. She tucked the old journal into her bag, trying not squish any of the berries inside. She didn't want to encounter one of these things. Maggie was more the type for horror and ghost stories but Beth despised them, she was easily spooked. She stole a quick glance at the corpse outside, who as well was torn apart.

"Daryl?" she bit her lip, he had gone in one of the backrooms to scavenge. And was relieved when she heard him respond in his usual grumbling. "Found something?"

Beth glanced back at the desk and picked up a necklace of dog tags.  _Strange_ , she wonders. Her brother Shawn had is in the military and she knew a thing or two how it works there.

 _American soldiers would never have left these behind. I don't think any of them made it out of here alive_ , she thinks and bit her lip in doubt. Whatever happened had been long ago, but the corpse outside…

"Hey I found arrows," Daryl's voice broke her thoughts as he walked towards her. He looked at the dog tags she clasped in her hands. "Something wrong?"

Beth shook her head. "No. It's just…" she trailed off. Unsure what to say, Daryl will think it's bullshit and laugh her off.

Daryl raised his eyebrow.

"Um, I just read a journal saying some kind of demon was attacking the soldiers that were here during the World War two, it said the thing would tear it's victim apart and eat it. Then I found the dog tags, which a soldier would never leave behind."

"That was seventy years ago, don't worry so much," he grunted and reached into his bag. "Ya got any room left in yer bag?"

"No, but…but that corpse outside!" Beth began, looking at him fearfully. "You said it's only a couple of weeks old! What if…What if it's real?!"

"Cut the crap, girl," he reached into his bag and took out a handgun. "Here if this will make ya feel saver, I found it in the bag. Ya can at least protect yerself from dangerous animals and yer 'ghost stories'."

 _I knew he wouldn't believe me,_  she thinks and accepted the gun.

"It's a Beretta, if my memory doesn't fail me. Just tell me when ya run out of bullets and I give ya some," Daryl started walking out of the building. "C'mon, let's go find some fresh water."

Beth looked at the gun and placed it under her belt and hurried after him. Giving the corpse and skeleton one more glance as she walked past it. Scared of what the future might bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Beth, this is only the beginning, I have so much in store for you guys!
> 
> Anyway, please review I love reading your thoughts!


	4. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl and Beth head back towards their camp and sit down, trying to progress today's events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go chapter 4! A bit of a filler chapter, I hope I explained everything well and if you don't understand you can ask me if you want. And thanks again for the follows, kudos and comments! Also, this chapter is longer again!
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> It's not beta'd, sorry.

_August, 2015  
Day 2 of Shipwreck_

_Hey, it's me again. We were very lucky today, we founds lots of berries, plants and other vegetation to eat. We also found a bow for Daryl and a gun for me. Daryl told me it was a Berretta 92SB, or something like that. It's a semi-automatic pistol. Daryl knows a lot about it. I wonder why? Today also was…a lot to progress, again. We came across a bunker that was inhabited by American Soldier during World War 2, we found the bow and the gun there. Only there was much more. There was the skeletal remains of one of the soldiers I mentioned earlier, it was hanging in a tree. It had the bow, so I had to climb into the tree and get it. I fell and luckily for me Daryl did catch me or else I would probably not writing this right now._

_There was also a mangles corpse, it was horrible sight! And the smell, the thought of it makes me sick. The image of it is stuck on my brain now, it's horrible. Great, I'm feeling nauseous again. The corpse was pretty…gross, like it was about two weeks decaying. Today I also realised everything I see, everything I do, is real. The dead bodies on the ship, the corpses around the bunker, everything._

_Then there was this journal I found, most entries are about the war and stuff. But I read some of the ones of being stuck on the island. Something or someone was killing the soldier and they were so afraid of them. It said that some kind of demon feasted on them. One by one. The Captain, the owner of the journal, he kept losing men to that thing. I'm scared, but Daryl said I shouldn't be such a scaredy-cat, that it had been a large animal that got them. It doesn't make me feel better, though. Maybe I'm scaring myself, that I'm over exaggerating, I blame Maggie for that._

_But more good news! We finally found a small river and I managed to wash myself up a bit. My hair was a mess, seawater and sand are gross. My clothes are semi-cleaned as well, the sand and seawater is gone. The sad point is they're wet again… And that's gross… While I was bathing in the river, which was freezing by the way, Daryl hunted. He's a hunter and pretty skilled with a bow. He managed to get two rabbits and a squirrel, that must have been a lot of patience._

_We're currently back at our 'base camp' again, on the ridge. We'll investigate further tomorrow, today was just exploring the woods around our current camp. We still have to look for the others and they might be around here in this area. Daryl suggested staying in the bunker, but I have a terrible feeling about it, not that it's haunted or something like that. Just the ghosts of the past are there. And I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing a guy was shredded to almost nothing just a couple feet away from it._

_Love, Beth_

Beth placed the journal down on the ground and grabbed her sore writing hand with the other, moving her fingers to get the cramp out. Daryl was looking at the pouring rain. The sun had set not long ago and darkness cascaded the jungle again. There was no sound, most animals were shying away from the rain. The temperature dropped a lot as well and Beth's cold and once again in wet clothing.

Beth had huddled herself into a fairly large blanket, they found it in the bunker. It smelt horrible, after all it had been in there in a box for a very long time, but it kept her warm. Daryl was cooking some of the bunny meat, holding it above the flames with some of the bamboo they found. He almost blew it up, but before he could hold it above the fire, Beth told him he needed to cut out the internal membrane of the plant, which is explosive.

"How did you know that?" he had asked starting taking the membrane out of the green plant.

Beth shrugged and replied. "Read it in one of momma's plant books."

The thicker bamboo sticks they collected had also been hollowed out, using it to store water and some of the food they had collected in the forest. While almost deciding using the rope they had gathered from the ship for making the traps, they last minute changed that to the thick and sturdy vines that grew in the rainforest everywhere. They might need the actual rope elsewhere.

"Here," Daryl handed her the first piece of the meat.

Beth took the meat into her shaking hand, the natural grease coated her skin. With her other hand she started picking tiny pieced of the meat and slowly ate it. Her momma always told her that if you eat slowly, you'll be more satisfied when you're done. Her brother never listened to that advice and crammed down his food during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Just like Daryl did now.

"Let's go back to the beach tomorrow, maybe some stuff washed ashore," Beth suggested after swallowing her bite.

"Or people."

Good thing Beth just finished eating her piece of the bunny, this comment made her loose her appetite. Why is he being so negative, she wonders. Okay maybe she's a little too naïve to believe many people survived, but still there could be a couple dozen alive. Maybe there were other survivors from different shipwrecks or air-crashes. She had seen some planes among the wrecks. Beth wiped the grease on her pants and licked her lips. She leaned back against the cold rocky surface behind her.

"Try to sleep some, you need it," she heard Daryl say to her.

"You didn't sleep last night," Beth argued back. "I can take watch now, besides that I don't think I'm able to sleep at all."

She remembered what the journal of Captain A. T. Jones described. She was scared of what sinister secrets this islands holds. She felt a negative energy when she woke up on the island and wonders what that means. Maybe her mind is playing tricks on her.

Daryl watched her and laid down on the ground. "Wake me up when you feel sleepy, I'm fine in a couple of hours."

Beth nodded in response and looked at the rain that poured outside their little camp. She couldn't shake the feeling she was having, like something's presence was near. Beth grabbed the journal she took from the bunker and opened it on the page she bookmarked with a dog-ear.

_There is just a very few of us left, Johnson was the last one that got caught. It's just James, Greg and me, we're the only ones left of our troops. I've faced the fact that I will die someday soon, the thing will find us and devour us._

_We haven't heard anything of the enemy since the thing took the first victim. The last thing we heard was a long time ago, the Axis had some research base installed in the mountains, maybe they were trying to find the thing. Tame it, use it as weapon. I found a note a couple of days when we were looking for some food and water, we have run out of it. The note was in Japanese and but I can't read it. I placed it under the leather cover of my journal, so If someone finds my journal they might decode it._

_I won't make it of this island._

_Captain A. T Jones  
December 1943_

That was the last one, there were no more entries. Though it stated there was note, under the leather cover. Soon enough Beth found the loose patch of leather and found a yellowed paper with a scratchy signs on it. Japanese. Beth sighed, she knew she couldn't read it but still looked for it. She stared at the paper for a while and placed it back where she found it, putting the book back into the plastic bag, along with her own journal and placed the plastic back in her backpack.

* * *

 

Daryl had woken up and saw that Beth had fallen asleep before she could wake up. She still leaned against the wall, head fallen slightly on her shoulder. Her mouth was open, breathing softly. He remembered that she had caught a cold from the exposure to the cold water the day before. The blanket she had huddled herself in had fallen off a little and he could see she was shivering now and then. The fire was slowly dying as it had barely any sourced to feed from. Daryl grabbed a couple of he sticks they had collected during their journey through the jungle along plucked some of the dead grass on the ground and placed both onto the dying flames, blowing on it.

The moon hang low in the sky, it had stopped raining and the night critters of the forest were making noise again. It was almost morning he noted. He coughed, his throat felt dry from the lack of water. He screwed the cap of the bottle he had taken out before going to sleep and drank to the last drop, it had already had been half empty.

He thought about Beth's suggestion of going to beach again, finding things that wash up ashore. He had been a little pessimistic when he replied, he knew about her hope about finding the other people. She had so much hope and naivety.  _It'll get her killed one day_ , he thought with bitterness. The dark-haired man remembered how she thought that a demon killed the corpse they saw yesterday, believing everything she read in that stupid journal she found. Daryl didn't believe in ghost stories, even though he encountered chubacabra once.  _It was most likely a large animal_ , he reminded himself.

With a cramp in his neck he slumped over towards her, pulling the blanket back over her shoulders. She's freezing, he noted and saw her bottom lip trembling a little. The nights were cold and the days humid and hot, it was horrible. He carefully lifted her up and carried her closer towards the fire, placing her head on her backpack. He didn't have to worry about squished berries anymore, they had placed it in the bamboo quivers they made.

He appreciated her knowledge of plants. He knew a lot some about them back in Georgia, but here there were so many unknown plants for him. He silently thanked Mama Greene –he didn't know her name and Beth had told him her last name yesterday- for teaching her daughter this knowledge.

As he finished cooking the other bunny for breakfast, an orange glow started to glow the sky. The sun started to rise and he heard birds chirp close by and in the distance. He looked outside, the orange glow slowly started to illuminate the green world surrounding them. On one side, it was so peaceful, being so far from civilisation, but there are so many dangers as well. Poisonous snakes and spiders, large predators, inedible plants that get consumed by wrong knowledge.

"Beautiful, isn't it," a soft, sleepy voice spoke.

He turned around and saw Beth had woken up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before yawing in her hand. She was so naive, he noted to himself reminding the horrors they saw yesterday, as if she forgot about them. He wished she hadn't seen it, it was a disturbing scene and an innocent girl like her shouldn't get exposed to the sickening scene that they ran into at the bunker. He tsked to himself, she's probably an adult not a little girl that needed to remain innocent.

"Ya were supposed to wake me up," he said, ignoring her comment.

Beth smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry, I just fell asleep before I noticed."

He turned back towards the bunny meat he was cooking and drew it back from the fire. It had burned a little, he noted. He split it in two and handed a half to Beth. "Eat, we head towards the beach afterwards."

Beth took it and started nibbling on it, wiping the little bit of grease with the back of her hand from her chin as redrew it back from her mouth.

They ate in silence looking at the beautiful morning that took place around them.

* * *

Beth found herself back on the beach again, looking at the now calm sea that threw low waves at the rocks and washed over the beach. Daryl was not far behind her, keeping an eye out towards any danger that might emerge from the vegetation surrounding them. The beach was a mess, just like they remembered, wrecks were littered everywhere, along with crates, barrels and sadly belongings of the people that had boarded the ships and planes.

Beth walked towards one of the suitcases that washed ashore and forced it open. The suitcase had belonged to a woman, seeing the clothing. There was a name-tag attached to the fabric on the inside of the suitcase. The water damaged it a little, it read Taylor I. Thorne. Beth bit her lip and took out a couple of the long sleeved shirts and vests. She also took the numerous belts-varying from coloured polyester to dark leather, she might use that later.

"Hey, found a sew kit," she heard Daryl yell at her. "You need it?"

Beth though about it, this way she can make extra pouches on their bags and clothing so they can carry more stuff and yelled back that they should keep it. Beth closed the case and looked at it. She grabbed the switchblade Daryl found earlier –and he gave it to her, saying she might need it- and cut the leather from it, placing it in another plastic back she found in the suitcase, along with the clothing.

The blonde moved on, looking for another usable object. She swallowed a lump when she saw a small bright pink suitcase, one similar to the one she had when she was a little girl. She slowly walked towards it. On the suitcase, written in black was a name. Mika Samuels. Beth let out a hitched breath and walked further.

She looked at the rocks and let out a startled cry as she saw the bloodied body of the ships' captain, alive and impaled through his right side on a sharp spear of rock.

"Daryl!" she turned around yelled back towards her companion who was about fifty feet away from her, looking through some crate. "I found someone!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, looks like they found someone, just not like Beth hoped like.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, this chapter was a little boring I guess. I try to keep to the creepy and scary stuff for later, same with the romance I try it to make it a slowburn. Anyway, please comment, let me know what you think!


	5. Far Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looks like their luck has run out...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another update, I'm so inspired. I bought a notebook where I can write in when I'm in the bus or in bed, basically when I can't use my laptop. So I spend my night yesterday to write this, barely any distraction around me. I'm easily distracted by the internet when I'm behind my laptop :P
> 
> Thanks again for the kudos, follows and comments!
> 
> Sorry, not beta'd.

Beth ran towards the wounded man that lay defenceless against the rocks and threw her bags on the beach before she ran into the water Her legs were slowed down by the ankle deep water that sloshed against her feet. She almost tripped when a wave was thrown against her calves. Daryl had heard her cry and turned around to see the blonde fighting against the waves towards the wounded man on the rocks. A slur of curses escaped the dark haired man before he ran towards Beth who was already at the man's aid.

Suddenly Beth didn't care about the seawater that soaked her clothing again. All she cared about was saving the poor man impaled on the rocks. Beth ignored the waves slashing against her back, she was soaked from head to toe now. Sitting waist deep in the water, she stared helplessly at the rocky spike that had pierced through the man's side. Beth glanced from the bloodied wound towards the older man's face, which was scrunched up in pain and his breathing was hitched, trying to stay alive.

"Don't worry," Beth spoke calmly, wiping a soaking wet strand of blond hair out of her face. She was trying to comfort the wounded man, who was white as a sheet now. "We're going to help you."

She tried to speak clearly, but stumbled of over her own words. She bit her dry bottom lip and started focusing on pulling the man from the rocks. It wasn't the best idea, but she couldn't leave him here to die. The man was trying to speak but all what came out of his mouth was slurs and moaning out of pain. Beth pressed her lips to each other into a thin line and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. Then she grabbed the man's shoulders.

"This is gonna hurt," she spoke, her voice filled with pity. Her expression was worried and she looked a little grim, her cynical side told her that the man won't make it. She looked into the man's pain filled eyes.

Daryl too had dropped his stuff on the beach before he started battling the sea's waves. As he reached his destination, he dropped next to Beth. He saw her, ready to pull the man from the rock. He studied her face, almost shocked how much she was determent to save the man. She was so much different from the girl he saw back at the bunker. He saw another side of Beth, not the scared girl, not the innocent sleeping girl. He saw a young woman now.

"Okay, on three," she nodded towards Daryl, who now had placed his hands at each side of the wounded man's torso.

"One…,two…three!" she gave a sharp pull and the man face scrunched up in pain and let out a strangled pain of anguish.

Beth had managed to get him almost of the rock. She looked at the main with sadness. "I'm sorry. But we have to do it again."

The man tried to speak but it had no avail. Only muttering and slurred words came out of his mouth. Daryl couldn't make out much. Don't and them. Daryl looked at Beth again who looked back.

"Daryl, when he's off the spike, we need to apply pressure on the wounds immediately. Or he'll bleed out," she sounded so professional, like she knew she was doing. Like she had done it before. It startled Daryl a little and he nodded in reply, knowing what to do.

"Okay, once more," she had turned her attention back to the man. "On three."

The man made a tiny movement, but it was a nod.

"One…,two…, three!"

Beth and Daryl once more pulled the body of the rock, freeing the man. Beth immediately moved her hands to the wounds and pressed on them and Daryl held the man up in a sitting position.

A wave splashed against them.

Beth spat out some of the seawater that got in her mouth. "We got to get him on the beach."

"Got it."

Carefully they worked together to get the man towards the beach, fighting against the forces of the sea. Careful not to trip again, Beth watched her footing –which wasn't an easy task-, but had to keep pressure on the wounds. The sticky blood coated her fingers, but bad didn't care. She almost tripped over her own feet when she didn't focus. She cursed the water and the waves that tried to struck them down. The wounded man kept muttering gibberish.

Soon enough they found themselves on the beach and placed the man on the wet sand, Daryl kept him up in a sitting position and took over from Beth, who started looking for the first aid-kit they had placed in Daryl's back. She had wiped most of the blood of on the sand before digging in the bag.

"D-do-don't," the man wheezed out as Beth grabbed the white bandages from the box. "Don't…waste your….supplies on…me."

Beth halted her in her movements and furrowed her eyebrows in a confused frown. "Why?"

"I'm already…I'm already…d-dying, girl," the man sounded calm between pants, he had accepted the fact he will die. "The wounds…not…fixable."

"But…," Beth started, but she couldn't form the words in her head. She dropped her arms by her side in defeat. She looked with a worried expression at the dying man. The focussed image of the young woman shattered back to the girl Daryl saw back at the bunker returned.

"We…tried," the man spoke. "We tried…to get off…the island, me…and a family…by boat."

Daryl looked at the man confused. "Something went wrong, didn't it?"

The dying man nodded. "This…island… Look…for…," the man halted in his words to cough. "Search a way…to get of the island."

"We'll try," Beth spoke, thinking about the journal.

"Keep…an eye out... to the girl, Daryl," the man wheezed and coughed. "Don't let them get you."

Beth eyes shot up to look at Daryl, fear present in her eyes. "What," she whispered under her breath.

"They…they…they won't let…you leave," the light and anguish in the man's eyes disappeared and the pained breathing stopped. He was dead.

Daryl looked at Beth who gave out a supressed sob of despair. He saw her bit her lip, trying to keep from crying but she failed miserably. Grimly, he closed the eyelids of the fallen captain. He thought about what the man said. What won't let them leave? For a brief moment Daryl though about the  _things_  Beth described out of the journal she found. He looked at the young woman, who now wept about the fallen man, a stranger to her. The dark haired man felt a urge to comfort her, but her shrugged it off. She was a stranger to him, only knowing her for the past two days.

"C'mon," he said, voice low and gruff. He stood up from his sitting position, collected his belongings as Beth still sat on the wet sand, not bothered by the sea that washed over the shore.

Beth sniffled and gave the kit back to Daryl so he could put it back into his backpack. She stood up as well.

"We should bury him," her voice as soft and raw from the crying. "He deserves that."

"With what? We ain't got a shovel."

"We can't leave him here behind!" she argued back.

"We can throw him in the ocean," Beth gave Daryl an angry glare as soon the words escape his mouth.

Daryl glared back at her, not angry with her but with the world. The man who gave him a job just died. Angrily, he dropped his stuff back on the sand and walked away to grab the big piece of sail he found. Solemnly he threw it over the dead man, securing the piece with placing large heavy rocks on each four corners to prevent it from blowing away.

"There," he angrily picked up his stuff and walked away. "Now, c'mon. Let's go."

Beth silently followed him.

* * *

"You knew him don't you," Beth asked as they returned to their base camp. "He gave you the job right? I remember you were a mechanic, on the ship. I saw you working on that machine in the hallway before…" she trailed off again, shifting her eyes down to the ground, playing with a stick in the mud.

Daryl shifted his eyes up to her and then back to the dying embers of their fire.

"Did he have any family?"

"Dale's wife died years ago, cancer. Didn't have any kids."

"Oh, then he's with his wife again."

They were silent again, minding her own business. Daryl heard a little happiness in her voice as she found a little good in the sad news. She always found something positive in something terrible and horrifying.

"What do you think he meant?" Beth asked, trying once again to make a conversation. "With that they won't let us leave?"

Daryl shrugged, not in the mood for this supernatural talk again.

"Do you think it's linked to the journal I found, with the demon?"

"That's bullshit, ain't such a thing," Daryl snapped back, he's getting tired of her talking like that. He didn't and doesn't want to know.

"You don't know that!" Beth yelled back. "There is something wrong with this island! And you don't want to accept that, because you're afraid!"

"I ain't afraid of nothing," he argued back, his posture showed defence.

"That's bullshit! I saw the doubt in your eyes, back at the beach!" she was loud now. Every animal close to them were gone, she couldn't hear the birds.

"Ya know nothing."

"You're unbelievable!" Beth stood up, grabbed her belongings and headed towards the jungle.

Daryl looked up and grumbled curses under his breath and hurried after her, grabbing her wrist. "Where do ya think ye're going?" he snapped at her, the memory of Dale telling him to keep an close eye on her fresh on his mind.

"The stream, I ain't staying in your suck-ass camp for one bit longer," she pulled her wrist back from his grip. "I want to wash up some bit."

Daryl glanced at her at her clothing, they were dirty again. It was wet with seawater which mixed once again with sand and now blood as well. He nodded his anger slowly fading away. He opened his bag and grabbed one of the walkie-talkie radios he found in a sealed box on the beach. He luckily also found some batteries and placed them into the radios and handed it to her.

"I'm gonna hunt for some food, give me a call when call when there's trouble."

Beth took the yellow and black walkie-talkie and hooked it on her belt, nodding. Her anger also cooling down.

"And I'll be near, give a holler when it's really urgent. Also don't be afraid to use yer gun, understand. I gave it for a reason"

Beth nodded again and walked towards the stream ten minutes away from their location as Daryl started looking for the tracks of the animals Beth had scared away.

* * *

Beth slowly stripped down to her underwear, still not confidant enough to bath naked in case she's being watched. She slipped in the chilling water, feeling the loose mud under feet, comforting her toes. She stayed close to the shore, where she had placed her gun and the walkie-talkie Daryl gave her, unsure what might come out to get her from the bushes, whether it was an animal or something or someone that wanted to attack her.

She ducked her head under water and as she held her breath she combed the sand, seawater and dirt out of her hair with her fingers. Beth emerged from the cold water with a gasp. Her lips were slightly blue from the cold and she couldn't wait to warm up by the fire in the one of the fresher blankets they found on the beach. She cleaned her face and arms with her hands. She was freezing but clean and Beth was glad that it was possible to do this. When she'll get home she'll really appreciate the luxury of a hot shower.

Beth missed home, the farm, they hay barn she played on when she was a kid, the animals she loves. Her family. She missed her momma's homemade pies, her daddy's calm and comforting voice whenever she had a nightmare, Maggie her bossiness over her and of course Shawn's extremely overprotective behaviour towards her she normally hated.

A tear escaped out of the corner of her eyes as she tried to keep herself from sobbing by biting her lip. She failed as a sob emerged from her lips

She missed her family so bad.

* * *

Daryl was tracking down a boar, he had heard it a short while ago and went looking for it. He had thought of Beth for a short while, she was the only one who fought up against his shit and stood up for herself. He admired her for that. She wasn't judgemental either. The blonde was unique, she saw the good in something bad, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind.

Focus Daryl, he reminded himself on tracking the boar. He had no time to think about the blonde.

 _Ya wanna getta piece of that ass, dontcha lil' brother_ , Merle chanted in his head.

 _Goddamn it, Merle_ , he fights back to his brother.  _I only know her for two days._ The bastard always was there in his mind, no matter how far away he was from his brother.

Birds chirped all around him again and the wind blew softly, caressing the leafs in there trail. It reminded him of home, the forests of Georgia. It was always so peaceful, no humans near him. That's why he loved hunting, no people around him to piss him off.

Daryl heard the boar again, it was close. He silently climbed on the nearest large mess of rock and scanned around him. He saw the brown creature not far away from him. Silently he crept to the edge and drew an arrow all the way back on the cord, putting as much pressure on the arrow as possible as he fired. The arrow struck the boar straight through the stomach, piercing through the thick skin. The poor creature cried out in agony as it fell. Daryl hopped off the platform made of rock and walked towards the dying animal. He wasn't sorry, a man's gotta eat. That's what his dad always said.

He took the large hunter knife –that he found in a crate on the beach- from his belt and cut the throat of the boar, ending it's distress. He moved on to skin it and cut of large pieces of meat he placed it in a plastic back. When he was finished, he left the carcass to the wolfs.

Suddenly a loud cry for help rang through the forest. Birds flew away from the direction, the direction Daryl had turned to in a split second. It came from the stream.

"Beth!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear, looks like the story really started now. More clues, less answers and what happened to Beth?
> 
> Anyway, mixed both their arguments in 'Still' in one and mixed it with my own twists and turns. Also, I have long past my curse by posting more than 3 chapters. This fic is lucky enough to be really inspiring, that's why I write it so fast so that I can continue.
> 
> Please tell me what you thought of it!


	6. Fighting to Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened, Beth?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's not keep you guys waiting too long. Thank you so much for your kudos, follows and comments! Here is little longer chapter for you. I hope it's morbid enough!
> 
> Not beta'd, sorry.

Beth woke up with a splitting headache. Her vision was blurry when she cracked open her eyes. It was dark, but she saw some light bulbs and red. So much red. After some time Beth's vision got clear and she noticed she was hanging upside down, wrapped in some large piece of fabric. It had a rough texture, it was scratching against her bare arms.

Beth looked around to her surroundings again now her vision was clear. She saw more of the 'cocoons' made of the made of the same material she was wrapped in, obviously there was something inside it. Beth had the strong feeling she didn't want to know, the stench from it was foul. The smell of the death. She had to get away from here. Her brain started to work on a plan, she needed to get loose. Beth started wriggling in her 'cocoon', trying to loosen herself. The material hurt her arms, probably scraping it open a bit. She looked at the red candles on a small ridge that stuck out of the wall, she had a plan.

Beth started to swing the rope she was hanging on, so she and her cocoon moved along. It took her a few swings before she really moved around, she hit one of the foul cocoons closest to her. The rope swung Beth back and the other cocoon knocked into the candle, catching fire. The material burns fast, she notes to herself. Good. Beth prepared for the flames that will catch her cocoon from the other, but the other cocoon swung against the clothed wooden bar. The cloth covering the bar caught fire and the cocoon that was lit fell apart, before it reached her. Out of the cocoon a decaying body fell down on the ground, which was littered with red blood, skeletons and corpses. Beth felt bile rise up in her throat. What happened here? Was she in the  _thing's_ den? No, that thing would have devoured her by the stream, if the journal was right. It also stated about the soldiers just disappeared. Beth tried to calm herself down, she needed to get out of here.

The bar still burned and she started swinging to her left now, where the bar stuck out of the wall. "This is gonna hurt," she told herself and prepared for the flames as she hit the bar, breaking it in two.

The cloth around her caught fire and Beth felt the flames' heat on her bare arms. She hissed in pain as the heat intensified, burning her skin lightly.

"Ow, ow, ow," she cursed under her breath, trying to stay quiet.

The rope snapped and the cloth around her was gone, it had burned up. Beth held her breath and prepared for the ground under her. She fell down, hard. Her head hurt like hell now, she almost forgot about the burns on her arms. Hoping she didn't break any bones, she stood up, almost slipping over the blood and mud covered floor.

The blonde looked around, there were so many dead bodies. Some were fresher that the others, some were really new, like they were just placed there. Beth also saw some strange markings painted on the walls with some with  _paint?_  Then she saw a body of a girl, behind her drawn with the same paint as the marking was the drawing of something. The girl's arms were tied apart, each arm had three ropes keeping her up. Her legs were tied together on the floor. A couple dozen of the same red candles as on the ridge, varying in size, were placed all around her and around the candles, dozens of  _human_  skulls, arranged like it was nothing, just some decoration.

Beth let out a loud gasp of horror, staring at the altar. Who made this? Her captor? She really had to get out of here. She walked towards wooden crate that served as some sort of table, numerous tools and weapons lay on it, coated in blood. Beth held her breath to prevent vomiting all over the floor. She saw her gun and the radio Daryl gave her, she grabbed the gun first. It was slightly sticky with the blood that had layered on the table. She wiped the blood off on her pants, which were already stained, and hooked the gun back on her belt. Then she took the radio and was about to walk away from the crate, another journal. Instead of taking the whole thing, she tore out written on paper and stored them in her pants' pocket. Maybe there were some answers.

She grabbed the torch from the wall and headed towards a low tunnel and ducked under it to walk further. A couple of noisemakers, moved as she walked passed it and she heard one male voice talking to himself.

"Fuck, he must have heard me," she whispered under her breath, fastening her pace.

Suddenly the floor under her disappeared and Beth fell down in the water that had flooded the cave. The torch almost died as it almost fell in the water. The ceiling was extremely low so Beth struggled to keep her head above water as she tried to swim through it, making sure the torch wouldn't die. The flames from the torch touched the rocky ceiling of the tunnel, illuminating the cave in an orange glow. The tunnel was long, at least to Beth who coughed up water whenever it got in her throat.

Luckily for her the tunnel didn't go on eternally and Beth eventually felt the floor under her feet again. The ceiling was still low, so she had to squeeze herself through the small opening. She pulled herself up and saw she ended up in another chamber of the cave. Numerous crates, scraps of metal and fishing nets created a sort of platform that lead toward another small opening at the other end of the chamber. It was too high to reach from where she was. She looked around for some makeshift chair to climb on. There were none, all crates and other surfaces had been used in the platform. I have to climb up on it, she decided. The blonde placed the torch on a piece of scrap metal on top of the platform and made the distance between her and the platform bigger by taking some steps back and ran towards the board that rested against the platform. When she almost reached the board she jumped, grabbing the edge of the crate just slightly above it and pulled herself up with all her might.

The she faced another problem and she groaned, there was a gap in the platform, just in the middle of it. It was easy to jump, but her way is blocked by various wooden objects covered by a dirty white sheet. Beth looked at the torch she had placed on the metal plate. She picked up the torch and walked towards the gap.

"Okay, gotta be careful now," she whispered and walked towards the edge of the platform, just above the deep gap, no wonder there wasn't anything between it.

She dug her fingers into a small cavity in the stone wall and leaned forward. Her arm ached from the burns, but she tried her best to ignore it. She had to do this. The fear in her head was supressed by the adrenaline she was feeling now, but still gnawed in her stomach. She felt the cavity slowly cracking as she lit the cloth with the torch in her other hand. She quickly balanced back to safety on the platform. She fell down on her butt and watched the fire burn away the crates and nets until it had nothing more to burn away.

Beth grabbed her torch back up –that she dropped when she fell- and stood up as she heard something splashing inside the tunnel behind her and kicked over the board to buy herself some time. Then she jumped over the gap and ran towards the other opening that had a wooden board holding up some large rocks. She kicked the wood, it looked weak enough to break at the force that she caused and quickly ducked under it and ran forward. She heard the board crack and the rock fall on the ground, blocking the exit.

The blonde ran and ran, the tight space never seemed to end and if Beth isn't going crazy she would have thought that the walls seemed get closer to each other. In the ends she ended up in another chamber of the large cave. She dropped down to rest for a second, fighting the pain that ached through her body. But she had to move on. She was close to the exit, she could see the bright white light of outside not far away from her.

Yet, she couldn't get there yet. A large barricade blocked her way. Crates, barrels, scraps of metal, all tied together by fishing nets and rope. Beth sighed in defeat.

"What now?" she asked herself studying her situation.

A large splash of water hit her. "Shit, the tide!"

That means she was close to the beach, that's a good sign! But still, she thought. I need to get out of here.

Then she spotted a couple barrels, metal barrels filled fuel and Beth laughed at her luck. She placed the torch on a rock that stuck out of the wall and began walking towards the barrels. "I just have to move them toward the barricade, all of them."

So she began dragging the heavy barrels towards the barricade, ignoring the pain in her arms and lined all five of them evenly leaving a large amount of space between them so it all of the barricade would be blown up. Beth laughed towards herself, what would her daddy say when he found out she knew all that stuff.

The water in the cave began flooding in from behind her, in the back of the chamber. She had to hurry. Quickly she grabbed the gun that she had hooked on her belt and took off the safety like Daryl showed her, she moved behind the rock wall and shot at one of the barrels, she heard it was possible that it could explode upon impact, but instead of hearing a large bang she only heard the fuel leaking out of the barrel on the water. Beth grabbed the torch from the ridge and threw it on the fuel. Beth heard the fire feasting on the fuel, towards the barrels and she hid behind the rock wall again, curling up in a ball.

The she felt a big shock ripple through the ground and large flash brightened the chamber, heating up the room. She did it! She quickly ran towards the tunnel after the barricade was gone, she smiled brightly as she saw the bright light from outside. She was so close!

Just then a large boulder dropped down, blocking her way. The whole cave shook.

"I have to get out of here!" she ran towards the other tunnel, where too was the bright light of outside. This was her large chance, the last exit. There were no more tunnels left now.

Beth sprinted as fast as she could, dodging loose rocks. She only slowed down when she had to crawl underneath a loose boulder that was on the brink of falling down. As she made it under the boulder so she could run again, she felt a hand grab her ankle. She fell forward, her elbows scraping against the rough texture of the rocky mud below her. She gasped for breath, not caring mud and dust that got in her mouth. She groaned in pain and moved on her back to see what was pulling her back into the den.

A man had grabbed her ankle and was pulling her back with crazed eyes. Panicking, she started to wriggle her ankle free from the man's grip, kicking his face.

"Wait!" she heard the man call to her as she finally broke free from his grasp, it seemed to take forever. She backed away from him. "I'm trying to save yo-."

He was cut off when the large boulders slipped free and fell on him, crushing the man under its weight. Beth let out a loud scream, the image of the skull exploding forever printed on her mind. The floor started to cave in and Beth had to hurry. Terrified, she scrambled back on her feet and ran as fast as she could towards the bright light of the exit. She was so close. She squeezed herself through a tight spot, which collided once she was through. She didn't stop, she had to get out! The last feet took forever! She jumped into the bright light, through the exit outside.

The entrance of the cave collapsed the second she got out.

Beth fell on the grass and started crying. She was alive, she made. Her heart pounded in her throat and ears. Adrenaline raced through her aching body. She cried all her emotions out, anger, happiness and relief. Tears ran over her cheeks as she sniffed, she let out a tired laugh. She made it, she's alive. She survived.

Once again, she got really lucky.

She rolled on her stomach, the adrenaline was gone after a while and Beth felt so much pain. The seven feet drop she fell in the beginning might have bruised her ribs. Besides that, the reddened skin on her arms from the burns had started to blister and hurt so much. Beth couldn't describe it. Her elbows were sore from the fall the man caused her, they were probably scraped.

Gasping for breath she weakly got up from the ground, she wanted to lay down and cry some more but she couldn't. She had something to do now. She looked at the dark clouds that suddenly appeared in the sky and rain started to fall. Beth closed her eyes and let the rain drip on her. It washed away the dirt, blood and everything else.

After a while she opened her eyes again, she's chilled to the bone and shivering. "I need to find shelter," she told herself, moving her aching legs down the road towards somewhere.

* * *

Daryl had searched everywhere for the blonde, but he couldn't track her down. He had run towards the stream, only to find her belongings. Her backpack and her clothing neatly drying in the sun. The belt was gone, she had her gun and the only way to connect each other with her. If her kidnaper didn't steal them. There were a couple of tracks, but he lost them once he got deeper in the woods.

She was gone.

He's sitting alone by the fire at their - _his_ camp. He stared at the embers glowing in the darkness that surrounded him. He was cooking some of the boar meat he caught today, tiredly he turned he stick around. It was pouring now, the rain splattered on the roof of the rock. He wanted to look for her, but he had no clue where to go, the rain made it worse.

He wondered how the person made the tracks disappear like that, there were no footprints anywhere. No drag marks. Nothing.  _Was it a person to begin with,_  Daryl wondered, thinking about what Beth told him about her findings in the bunker. Maybe it was time to believe in ghost stories now. Beth was right, there was something strange going on this fucking rock.

_Starting to believe in ghost stories now, Darlina,_ Merle was back in head. Asshole has been bothering him for a while now.  _Ain't that for little girls?_

_Shut up, Merle,_ Daryl fought back against his brother. He didn't have time to be bothered by his fucking brother right now –who isn't even anywhere near him anyway.

_Blondie must have been scared away by the big bad wolf,_ Merle laughed and Daryl imaged a shit eating grin on his older brother's face.

Then a static noise interrupted Daryl's internal battle with his brother before he could reply to that. He grabbed the radio out of his bag and looked at it as more static noise came out of it.

"Beth?" he asked the radio, which still made a lot of static noise. "Beth, can ya hear me?"

Then a voice broke through the static. Her voice. "Daryl?"

"Beth! Yes, it's me. Where are ya?"

"Thank God!" he heard her laugh, she sounded so relieved. "I've been trying to reach you for a while now!"

"Beth, what happened? Are ya okay?" he asked more calmly this time.

"I was cleaning my clothing, when someone attacked me from me from behind, knocking me out. I woke up in a terrible place, there were dead bodies everywhere!" she was panicking now. "Daryl, please come and get me, I'm so scared."

"Where are ya, Beth?" Daryl asked, trying to calm her down as he packed up his stuff. "Does that bastard still have ya?"

"No…he's dead. I-" he heard her choke back a sob again.

"Calm down, girl,"

"I killed him, Daryl! It was an accident."

"It's okay, Beth. It was either you or that guy," trying to keep calm for her. "He deserved it."

"There was this rock, a boulder! He tried to grab me and pull me back, but I broke free and it fell on him," she cried. "It  _crushed_ him, I still see it happening! I didn't mean it!"

"Beth, calm down. Where are ya?" he asked firmly, ready to leave and fin her.

"Somewhere above the beach, on the cliff or so. I can see the ship from here," he heard her try to calm down, her teeth chattered. "Please, Daryl, hurry up. I'm hurt and I can barely walk."

"Keep yer gun close and make a fire, like I showed ya," he started walking towards the beach. "I'm coming to get ya."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daryl, you better find her. She's on the brink of breaking.
> 
> So the scene with Beth came from the beginning level of Tomb Raider 2013 and it was nerve breaking, so I had to torture Beth with it. There will be more scenes from the game that I will apply to the story because they are just so horrifying great! This was just the beginning!
> 
> Anyway, what do you think?


	7. Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New answers come with new people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I'm so sorry it took so long! It took me a while to write it, I have that with filler chapters. Good news I found a Beta reader, Rckyfrk on FF and Tumblr.
> 
> Also thank you to all those who left kudos, followed and left comments!

As much as he wanted to find Beth, Daryl had no idea how to reach the cliffs. There was no way up via the beach, as if there was no path going up there. His feet had slightly sunk into the soft sand from where he stood on the beach, looking at the high cliffs where Beth is. There was no other option, he had to search into the jungle and see if there was a way around.

Daryl frowned and hoisted the baggage he was carrying back on his shoulders and walked back towards the thick flora of the jungle. The rain slightly drizzled on him, the cold water sinking into his clothing making it stick onto his skin. He hoped Beth found shelter for the night, it was a cold night again with the rain and the wind.

Beside the rain dripping down on the ground and leafs, he heard nothing. No birds, no insects, no mammals, nothing. It was an eerie presence. He was all alone in the silent darkness that suffocated the forest, no soul near him.

The rain had stopped, but the trees dripped on him now. He felt like he walked at least a couple miles now as the moon was nearing the western sky, it was nearing morning. Daryl kept on walking and walking trying to shake of the feeling that nestled in his stomach, that nasty feeling as if being watched. He kept on walking though. Until he heard a low growling in a bush nearby, he stopped and took the bow loading an arrow slowly, eying the rustling bush as he aimed.

He breathed in and out, trying to calm his nerves and brain. He cursed himself mentally, Beth had her way to convince him of the monsters she strongly believed in. She and her damn ghost stories. He swallowed as the growling got louder.

Then a dark shadow leaped of the bushes and Daryl released the arrow. The arrow cracked through the creature's skull and fell down with a dull thud on the floor.

Daryl scoffed. "Just a damn wolf."

Nothing scary about a damn wolf, except that it was going to pouch him. He ripped the arrow out of the wolf's skull and walked off deeper into the jungle.

* * *

"Dad! She's waking up!"

That was the first thing Beth heard when she woke up from her slumber, the voice of an young teenage boy. When she stirred she felt a burning pain tremor through her body and she let out a strangled moan as she tried to get up. She felt someone press the rim of a plastic bottle on her lips and she opened her lips letting the fresh water run down her dry and painful throat as a hand on her back kept her from falling back. She gulped the water down fast, chocking on it as it got in her windpipe. She felt the hand on her back pat her, trying to get the water up.

Beth rubbed the tears out of her eyes and opened them, sniffing as she tried to control her breathing. Beth looked around and noticed she was in a sort of room, three walls –one of them were gone, and a roof. All around the room she saw people, she saw the teenage boy looking at her with concern and a dark woman cleaning a…sword? Closer to the campfire in the middle was another dark skinned woman, sitting next to her dark skinned man with a smile on his face, talking to the woman. Just outside the house she saw to more people, a man and a woman. They were arguing.

"Andrea, I already told you, I couldn't leave her to die there," she heard the man say to the blond woman. "You saw her injuries."

"Exactly, her injuries!" the woman –Andrea, swung her arms in frustration. "Who knows what's after her."

Beth started recalling what happened before she passed out. That's right, she remembered the horrifying images of what happened in that cave. The corpses, the altar and the girl, the white paint signs, the tide, her escape, the cave that shook and the boulder that crushed the man's skull. Beth felt the water she downed rise back up into her throat, the horrifying image replaying in her mind.

"He's dead," she rasped out, her voice was low and barely above a whisper.

"Your assaulter?" she heard a deep voice ask beside her, the man that gave her the water.

Beth nodded in response and licked her dry, cracked lips, wishing she had her backpack with her so she could apply some of the lip balm she kept in front pouch of her bag.

"I'm Tyreese," he introduced himself.

"Beth."

"That's my sister Sasha," he pointed towards the woman close to the fire and nodded towards the man. "That's Bob."

Bob waved as Sasha smiled at her.

"I'm Carl," she heard the boy say.

Beth smiled and gave a small wave.

"Michonne," the woman with the sword spoke.

"I'm Beth," she introduced herself to the group this time.

Carl handed Sasha Judith and he walked toward the gap in the wall. "Dad! I said she's awake!"

Beth saw that the arguing duo stopped in their actions and turned towards the camp, eyes looking at her. The man walked towards her as the woman stopped and sat down next to Michonne. Carl had followed the man and stood next to his as the man kneeled down in front of her.

"I'm Rick, Carl's dad," he held out his hand so Beth could shake it. Beth accepted and shook his hand. "We found you past out near the cliffs on the beach. You were out for a day, Carl here thought you would never wake-up."

"Where am I?" Beth asked, curious about her surroundings.

"The mountain village," she heard Michonne say. "We're high up in the mountains, one of the safest spot on this island."

"The wind can be dangerous," Carl piped up. "It's really strong up here."

Rick chucked at his son and turned back to Beth. "You hungry?"

"Starving," Beth admits, she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast with Daryl and if what Rick said is true, about sleeping a whole day, she hadn't eaten anything for almost two days.

* * *

Beth had told them what happened to her, from the shipwreck to Daryl and how he saved her to the recent kidnapping. She saw the shock in their faces, when she talked about the crazy man that abducted her. Rick had told her that they had been here for a couple weeks now, at least that was what he thought, admitting that he lost track of time. He also told her that he hadn't run in any problems.

He also told her that he and Carl shipwrecked here. It was a Father-and-Son trip he said, telling her his wife and newborn baby stayed back at home. Tyreese, Sasha and Bob were on a fisher's boat, their boat crashed and they managed to survive, not knowing what happened to the rest of the crew. Michonne and Andrea were in a plane crash, telling her that the storms forced them to land. Andrea was a journalist, looking for an island with a past, a story. Bringing her friend Michonne with her, who's her translator.

Beth now sat against the wall, looking at the papers she snatched from the makeshift table on the cave. They were slightly damaged by the water, but it's still readable.

_I got away, they didn't get me! I managed to escape their claws! I saw them push Sara in that pit. That pit of dark secrets. Beware of the man with the eyepatch!_

The note was short, but written in big wonky letters, filling the whole page so and Beth moved on to the note.

_They take every woman! Kill the men they don't think are worthy. Those who are worthy are kept alive and had to do a test._

Beth looked at the note, confusion framed her face. She moved on to the next one.

_I have to help the newcomers, so they don't fall victim to him._

And the next.

_I killed them, oh I killed them. It was quick, they didn't suffer. I have helped them._

Beth shuddered and placed the papers down, he wanted to kill her as well. 'Save her' in his own way. She understood, his idea of 'helping' newcomers is to murder them, to spare them the ordeal of a slow death on the island. It means that the island kills people as well, the things she read about was a part of the island, she guessed.

"I don't understand," Beth whispers. "Just what is happening on this island?"

"Something bothering you?" Beth looked up to see Andrea standing next to her. The older woman had replaced her hostile behavior into a more caring nature.

Beth nodded. "There is something wrong with this island. The notes I read tell about some kind of man taking woman and killing men that aren't worthy to join them, then there was this journal that said about a thing that was hunting them. Also the captain of our ship said something about that something won't let us leave."

Andrea frowned at what Beth told her, familiarity shining in her eyes, as if she heard it before. "This island," she started. "I heard about the stories and myths about a mysterious island ruled by a queen, a queen with power.

"Story goes, she wasn't really loved by most of her subjects and most of them lived under her fear. She protected by her guard, but they failed the stop her assassination. On her death bed she cursed this island, letting nobody leave it ever."

Beth sighed. "Pretty dark."

Andrea nodded. "I believe -with your finds, that this the Island Gomeh."

Beth looked at the gap in the wall, looking over the cliff and sighed. Daryl is there somewhere and he's looking for her. She turned towards the older woman and asked what happened to her gun and radio.

Andrea moved towards her belt. "Here, I kept them."

"Has he tried to contact me?"

"You mean this Daryl guy? Rick briefly talked to him," Andrea explained. "Said where you are, this Daryl guy sounded crazy about you."

Beth laughed. "I just met him and most of the time he just grumbled and didn't talk to me at all."

"Well, he sure is worried about you."

Beth smiled at that thought, he did care for her. "I need to talk to him," she said. "Can you help me up, I'm afraid I can't get up myself, yet."

"Some exercise will do good to you," she heard Bob say from his spot at the fire.

Andrea helped the younger blonde get up on her feet and Beth groaned as she put weight on her tired muscles.

"You okay?" Carl asked with concern as he noticed a pained expression take of the blonde's face.

Beth nodded and hissed as she moved towards the gap so she could go outside. She was only a couple steps outside and she collapsed as she neared the cliff of the mountain and looked at the star filled sky, thinking about her family and thinking about Daryl who's somewhere in that sea of green darkness under the cliff. She took the walkie-talkie from her belt and pushed the talk button.

"Daryl?"

* * *

The voice was barely above a whisper, but her heard her loud and clear. It was her! After that Rick guy talked to him about finding Beth unconsciously in the rain, soaking wet and injured, he felt…scared? He didn't understand this feeling, this concern towards a girl he recently met.

He took the walkie-talkie. "Beth, are ya okay?"

"I'm fine," he heard her say, she sounded calmer than the last time they spoke, more than twenty-four hours ago. "Just really sore."

There was a wince in her voice and her frowned. "Look Beth, I'm comin'. This Rick fella told me yer guys location, I know it's a long walk from where I am, but I promise I will find ya."

"Once I feel a little better, I will start heading your way as well," he heard Beth say through the static and worry filled him, the he remembered she can take care of herself just well.

"Try to be careful, Greene,"

"I miss you, too, Mr. Dixon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter but I hope you enjoyed! So what were your thoughts! 
> 
> Also, I plan on writing a French Revolution Bethyl AU, would you guys be interested?


	8. Tracks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth just feels that something is wrong and goes to look for Daryl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last, it's done!! Phew, this took me a while to write. I'm an artist as well, and I'm drawing a Beth centric comic (and a lot of other drawings for my portfolio) so yeah, I'm just working on whatever I feel inspired for. So I hope you like the chapter, it's twice as long as usual. Sorry that it took me so long.
> 
> And as always, thank you for the comments, kudos and subscriptions. 
> 
> Beta'd by Rckyrfk, thankfully because I made some pretty silly mistakes. I hope you enjoy.

Beth slowly stuffed a piece of mango in her mouth, chewing on the fruit, and swallowed, savouring the sweet juice of the orange fruit. As she sat in her spot in the corner of the camp, she watched Rick and Carl skin a rabbit they had caught in one of their snares. It was late in the morning, almost noon as the sun started to set itself high in the sky. It had been three days since she had been with Rick’s group, three days without Daryl, and she missed him.

Although she’d been healing well, Bob even remarked about her being a fast healer. The bruises were healing fast and were now a greenish hue instead of the dark purple they were a couple days ago. With a bit more activity every day, Beth’s sore muscles started to hurt less and less. However, the reddened skin of the burns were blistered and hurt when touched, so Beth kept the skin exposed to the open air.

Every day, after the sun had gone down and Daryl decided to rest, they talked through their walkie-talkies, having turned them off during the rest of the day to prevent draining the batteries. They discussed many subjects she proposed, from her home in Georgia to her new group. She also told him she’d been healing fast and well. Beth discovered that he had a brother, but was still very secretive about it. Beth just smiled to herself; he had always been a listener, and he let her do the talking. So she talked. She mentioned Andrea’s and Michonne’s wild stories or Sasha’s stories about saving animals and people as a firefighter.

But last night he never answered. His walkie-talkie wasn’t on; the only response Beth got was static noise.

She worried. First she dismissed it, thinking it was the battery that had died, but that didn’t make sense; his was just as new as hers and the radio in her hands worked. Beth was certain something was wrong, it had to be.

Beth sighed. She couldn’t sit and wait anymore; she needed to look for him! She sat up from her spot on the floor of the broken house. As she passed Carl, she gave him the remaining fruit with a smile. She licked her sticky fingers and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before wiping both hands again the fabric of her jeans, grimacing slightly as dirt and sand stuck on her fingers. She turned over to Rick, who was cleaning his bloodied hands on a rag.

“I’m going to look for Daryl,” she crossed her arms over her chest, looking determined. “Something’s wrong, I can feel it.”

Rick tilted his head to the right. “You sure? I mean you’re still pretty injured.”

Beth nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Doesn’t hurt as bad as it looks.” She brushed away a lock of hair from her face. “Besides, I think some exercise will be good for me.”

“I’ll go with her,” Beth turned around to see Andrea walk towards her. “Might as well pick something up about this island.”

Rick frowned, “Still going on about that?”

Andrea nodded. “You see a dead rock, I see a story.”

Rick looked sceptically at Andrea, who now stood beside the younger blonde.

“Rick, you’re not going to convince her to stop and her stories,” Michonne interrupted from her spot, knowing her blond friend and business partner better than anyone. “She’s been dead set on finding this island.”

Andrea nodded wildly, her hair bobbing at the motion and looked determined at the man. “Yeah! And Beth here found proof that this might be Gomeh, and I’m willing to find more!”

The older woman was now packing her stuff in a bag as Rick started questioning Beth again to see if she was sure about this.

“I’m sure,” she replied with determination in her eyes.

“The papers that you found also mentioned of people living on this island, bad people,”

Beth paled. She had forgotten about that. _No_ , she told herself. _Daryl is a smart man, he won’t trust strangers_. She frowned. _I doubt that he trusts me much, either._

While she was having a war with herself, Andrea threw a dark green, worn shoulder bag in her direction, snapping her out of her thoughts. Beth caught the bag and strapped it over her shoulder and nodded as the older woman walked down the dried mud path towards the jungle.

 “We’ll be back sometime tomorrow. If we aren’t back by sundown, start to worry.”

* * *

 

Beth followed Andrea step for step as they headed down the mountain path, careful not to slip or trip over the vegetation and rocks that littered the ground. It hadn’t rained since two days ago, and they took it as a good sign since it made the foot prints still visible.

“So, you’re pretty fond of this Daryl, aren’t you?” Andrea started after a long peaceful silence                                                                                                                                                                    

Beth nodded. She panted slightly, her muscles didn’t fully agree with walking for half a day now. “He saved my life. If it weren’t for Daryl, I would have drowned.”

“That explains it all,” Andrea swatted a low branch away from her path. “How long have you been with him?”

“A couple days, two or three I believe,” Beth ducked under the branch and giggled. “Felt longer, though.”

“I have a sister your age,” Andrea stopped as the road split in two; one half went back to the beach and one followed the ‘main’ path, not the path they came from. “She believes in that stuff. You know, fate and how people can grow attached to each other so fast, soulmates and whatnot. She wanted to become a fortune teller, but dad was against it. Hell, my dad wanted me to be a lawyer – which I did study for a while.”

Andrea crouched down to look at the mud path, looking for some footprints. “But I like journalism and chasing ghost stories. Maybe I’ll take Amy with me for my next story – that isn’t as dangerous as this one.” There was a hint of humour in her voice.

Beth nodded and dug her hand in the green shoulder bag, fishing out a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap she took a sip from it and placed it back in her bag. She wiped her head; the island heat was humid and sweltering. “Where did you learn how to track?”

“Michonne taught me, we got on a job together when I first started. We were in Mexico and got lost in the forest for eight days. We formed a tight friendship and have been working together since. She’s a very smart woman. However, I do wonder where she learned how to use that katana she found a couple of days ago,” Andrea turned back to Beth and her eyes sparkled. “It’s ancient, probably belonged to one of the warriors that lived here on the island many centuries ago.”

“Aren’t katanas from Japan?” Beth frowned. “I never realized we got this close to Japan, already.” She made a mental note to ask Daryl about this, hoping that maybe he had kept track of the trip because she hadn’t.

“Well, we’re closer than you think.”

Beth shrugged and looked up at the sky, shielding her eyes from the sun with her fingers, remembering what Daryl told her. “We got only a couple hours of sunlight left.”

“We can look in the dark, this island has many ancient lanterns on the ‘main’ road that still work,” Andrea explained and walked further on the path. “Your friend probably followed this road, I think those are his footprints – well I hope they are…” she pointed at the muddy path she was standing on. “The path we just used is sheltered by trees, bushes and rocks. He probably didn’t even see the small road we just took.”

Beth shrugged, knowing that Daryl had sharp eyes and he could have seen it.

“Anyway, we should catch up with him soon. If he wanted to enter the mountain village via the main road, he’d have to open an ancient gate and that’s not easy when you’re alone since that gate is giant,” Andrea explained, slapping a mosquito that rested on her arm.

“Maybe he’s not alone,” Beth said and looked at the muddy path, and unless her friend walked in circles, it looked like there had been multiple people walking on it. “Maybe he ran into those bad people from the notes. The notes said tough looking men are accepted and Daryl’s tough looking. You haven’t seen him yet, but he has some impressive arms.”

Andrea amusingly raised an eyebrow and Beth giggled. “What he’s…kind of attractive,” she shrugged, smiling sheepishly and tilted her head to left a bit.

“C’mon Greene, let’s get to that gate already before it gets too dark,” Andrea nodded at the path and started walking again. “It’s a couple of miles away.”

 “Hey, how do you know about all these roads?” Beth asked out of curiosity as she hobbled behind the older blonde.

“I had a map, but Carl lost it,” there is a hint of annoyance in her voice. “Lucky I memorized a part of the map.”

“That’s a shame…” Beth mused and looked around her. “It would have been useful at the moment.”

“Yeah, I was really pissed at the kid,” Andrea swatted a fly in mid-air and cursed at the insects. “Rick hasn’t let anything important fall in the hands of that kid again.”

Beth snorted. “I understand that.”

They passed a big tree, full of animals and green leaves that shaded the road. Beth smiled and mentioned the monkey in the top branches in the tree. Andrea stopped and leaned against the cool bark of the tree. She panted lightly as the heat beat on her skin. Beth, too, sat down on a large stone under the shade of the tree, the cool surface chilling her butt.

Andrea wiped her forehead and muttered about the heat that killing and turned her attention to Beth. “I’ve seen many monkeys on my travels. You like them?”

Beth nodded and took out her water bottle –now half empty, and took a long sip. “Yeah, they’re cute…except when they are aggressive, like gorillas.” She licked her dry lips, wishing she had her lip balm with her and took another sip of water to soothe her dry throat.

Andrea laughed and a huge smile broke out on her face, looking at the sky for a memory. “Michonne wouldn’t agree with them being cute. She kind of holds a grudge against those squirrel monkeys. A group of them once threw fruit at her when we were in Africa.”

Beth almost spurted the water that she was drinking out of her mouth, imagining the tough, black woman covered in fruit bits and juices. She swallowed and coughed up some of the water drops that got caught in her throat and laughed.

Andrea smiled. “Would have been funnier if she had had that sword back then. Could have cut that fruit like fruit ninja or something like that.”

Beth coughed as she was laughing, wiping a tear of joy of her cheek. “Please stop, this bad for my ribs.” She breathed and touched her sore ribs, rubbing lightly over them, then she went on to rub her sore ankle. She found out after most of the pain subsided that her ankle had started to throb with a dull pain despite Bob having wrapped it up for her with a splint.

“You okay?” Andrea nodded toward her ankle, reaching out for her own water bottle. “We’re getting close to that gate, just an hour away from here, I believe.”

“I’ll be fine,” Beth licked her lips again; they were chapped and slightly burned. “I think I’ll manage.”

“Good. The sun’s almost down. We can set up camp and look further tomorrow if that ankle of yours can’t go any further today,” Andrea pushed herself away from the tree and picked up her bag and helped Beth back up from the rock.

“Maybe he can find us when we set up a camp. He can’t be that far, can he?” Beth asked, leaning on her good foot.

Andrea nodded. “I hope so.”

* * *

 

After walking another hour, Beth’s ankle hurt like hell, throbbing like crazy. The sun had just got down, leaving them and the forest in darkness. Andrea has been lighting the lanterns. Like she promised, there was still oil in them for the fire to burn and Beth had a feeling it would have been better to keep them extinguished, but all the light was needed to set up camp. Andrea stopped and stood in an open spot in the forest with just a couple of bushes and stray trees surrounded by the thicker vegetation. They spotted a couple concrete blocks that used to be a bunker, the ground fallen in - now all dirt with grass growing over it. It was half sheltered by the concrete ceiling that still looked sturdy and far from falling down. Under the sheltered space, the remnants of a campfire remained, now all ashes and dust. Surrounding the ashes were some bones with tiny bits of meat still on them.

“That campfire can’t be older than two days,” Andrea muttered and walked to the site. “Let’s hope it was Daryl who was here.”

“I was hoping to find him here.” Beth was disappointed and she could hear it in her own voice. She looked around the darkness and concern started to nestle in her stomach. She bit her lip. “I can’t help but feel worried.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s tough, he can hunt,” Andrea collected some dry plants and looked up at Beth and winked. “You said that yourself. Besides, maybe he’s hunting right now,” she pointed to the forest with the dead plants in her hand, “right out there.”

Beth smiled; maybe Andrea was right and he would come back later and she would be here to greet him. Still, the thought of him not responding to the walkie-talkie worried her. He could have said something during the day, she kept hers on the past hours.

“Anyway, if it wasn’t Daryl, whoever it was, he’s close…” Andrea muttered and Beth knew she was talking about the men mentioned in the notes. Beth nodded and sat down on the brick of concrete that was in front on the campfire that Andrea was still trying to light.

Beth moved uncomfortably in her seat, feeling her bladder about to explode. “Ehm, Andrea?”

“Hmm?” Andrea lit a match and dropped it on her handiwork of dried plants and sticks, which easily caught fire.

“I have to go, eh, use the bushes, ya know,” Beth mumbled, still not one hundred percent comfortable to use the bushes as her toilet. She remembered the first time she’d had to do that.

* * *

 

_“Hey, um Daryl?” her words were soft and quiet. They had been walking for a short while now, trying to look for shelter as the falling rain started to get worse. All around her were plants, trees and animals that watched them. Mosquitos flew around her ears, their noise was annoying her. She always hated mosquitos._

_“What is it this time, kid?” she heard Daryl grumble out as he walked in front of her. She could feel he was very grumpy as well and tried not to bother him too much; the rain and the bugs were pissing him off already._

_Beth felt her face heat up and stopped in her tracks, uncomfortably shifting on her feet. “I have…I have to pee.”_

_Daryl stopped and turned around to face her. Oh yes he was very grumpy, she thought after seeing his angry glare. He sighed and pointed everywhere with his hand. “Enough plants to hide behind, princess. Besides, it ain’t that weird…I do it all the time.”_

_“Well, you’re a guy,” Beth muttered under her breath; he raised an eyebrow at her before glaring again, asking if she had to go or not. Beth hummed a response with annoyance; she was expecting a blunt answer from him. “Just…just don’t peek, okay?” she said, and walked into the vegetation to relieve her bladder._

_“Jerk,” she muttered as she fastened her jeans again. She sniffed and swatted at a fly near her face. “Of all people I could have been stuck with, it had to be some redneck jerk.”_

_“Sorry it ain’t a five star resort we got stranded on, princess,” she heard him call from the path where he was waiting and groaned in annoyance. Why did he have to be so rude?_

_Beth walked back to the path and looked at him, annoyed; they needed to find shelter soon. The temperature was dropping fast and she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and now the sky was darkening as the sun went down behind the dark grey clouds that had hidden it all day._

_“Now, that wasn’t all that bad, huh?” Daryl muttered, wiping rain and sweat from his face. “Get used to it, I have a feelin’ we’re goin’ to be stuck on this rock for a while.”_

 

Andrea still didn’t look at the younger blonde as she worked on keeping the fire alive. “Be careful and keep that gun really close, maybe there is no human danger around here, but there sure are a lot of dangerous animals on the prowl during the night.”

As if on cue, a wolf started to howl, filling the air with its haunting, lonely cry.

Beth nodded and walked into the thick forest to the right of them, close to the camp. Beth looked around for a spot, hiding her from at least two sides. When she spotted a bush that was hollow in the middle she went on to relieve her bladder from the unwanted pressure and zipped her pants back up when she was done. Just as she buttoned her pants, she spotted a familiar pink fabric stuffed under a bush next to a tree a couple feet away from her.

It was her backpack!

She walked to the pack. Yes, it’s hers! That meant that Daryl was close! Just as joy sparked in her mind, fear replaced the feeling when she spotted some blood stains on the pink. Beth sucked in a breath. What had happened? Why was there blood on her backpack?

Where was Daryl? Was that his blood? Was he hurt?

Not only that, but why was only her backpack here on the ground and not Daryl’s stuff? Beth’s head hurt; she couldn’t think straight at the moment and desperately tried to put two and two together. He’d been here, he was probably hurt. Maybe he knew she would come looking for him and had left her a message.

The bag…his message had to be in the bag!

She hastily returned to the camp, pale as a ghost. She saw Andrea warming her hands above the flames that illuminated the small camp in an orange hue. Andrea had heard her returning and looked at her with a worried expression and asked what was wrong. Beth didn’t answer and sat down on the concrete and opened her bag.

“It’s mine,” she said, and started digging in the bag, feeling almost dried blood – at least she thought it was blood – on her fingers as she tried to look for clue. “This is my backpack, Daryl had it – it has blood on it!” she panicked, feeling breathless. She began shaking, unable to keep herself from doing so. “Andrea, there is blood on my backpack. Something has happened.”

“Shh, calm down,” Andrea rubbed her back. “Look, it’s not a lot of blood. Just a couple of drops, maybe he hurt himself accidently.”

“Why would he leave the bag then?”

Andrea looked down, trying to form an answer. Beth knew she wouldn’t be able to. There was only one explanation: something was wrong. Beth looked down at the bag, defeated, and pulled out her journal; to her dismay, more blood coated the cover of the book.

Beth looked at Andrea, worry in her eyes. “Maybe he left a message. He probably ran into those bad men and is trying to warn me – us!” She was probably looking crazy now, with her hands in her hair and fallen ponytail that now hung down her back with tiny specks of blood because of her fingers. She was feeling delirious and was feeling the beginnings of a headache, the memories of the den she was in a couple days before suddenly fresh in her mind – the dead bodies, the man that she killed – everything! She felt sick again; she hated this island and wanted to go home, back to her bed at the farm, with her momma’s home-style cooked dinner, daddy’s kind words and everything else. She wished for it every night and now she really needed it.

Beth could feel Andrea trying to calm her down. “Shh, it’s alright. Let’s see what Daryl has to say.” She opened the journal to the last written page.

Beth sniffed and looked at the message that Daryl left her, reading his chicken scratch handwriting with equally terrible grammar. It looked like a joke next to her perfectly legible entries. She saw the bloody finger prints on the paper as she read the words over and over.

_Beth, I’m fine. Don’t worry, just a small bite wound from a darn wolf. Thing’s dead, most of this is his blood. Seemed like a good reason to leave your backpack behind. Look I ran into some bad people and been asking about the bag. I told them you got taken and they knew by who. They think your dead. Anyway, I’ll tell them the wolf got your pack._

_Look, I’m serious they’re hunting women, told me something about a key of getting off this damned rock. I think I’m starting to believe your ghost stories, girl. We’re going through that gate, they want me to join their band of ‘brothers’.  Said I was worthy, but I needed to lose my humanity or whatever that means. I’ll try to leave some hints behind, remember what I told you during tracking the first day? The signs are all there, you just got to read them. I’ll leave them at some point, just read those damn signs I leave ya._

_Be careful and keep that gun close and don’t be afraid to shoot, it can save your life_

_D_

_Sorry for the blood, it’s gotten everywhere._

“We have to get through that gate!” Beth jumped up, stuffing her journal back in her backpack and slung the thing on her back. She grabbed the shoulder bag and hung it around her shoulder, ready to leave. She looked down at Andrea and grinned with new found hope. “We have to track them down.”

“Now?” Andrea tilted her head to the left and tiredly raised an eyebrow. “I mean, we can search in the morning; he left his tracks.”

“Yes, now,” Beth said firmly, her soreness and tiredness all gone now.

Andrea sighed and stood up, made a torch and kicked dirt in the campfire she had worked so hard to light. “Well, since you are so dead set on it, let’s get that man of yours.”

Beth blushed, her cheeks filled with heat. “He’s not…he was just…is my companion who kept me alive – I barely know him, okay?”

“Sure. C’mon let’s open that gate,” Andrea grinned and walked into the open spot.

After crossing old wooden bridges, mere decoration over the sleek creeks under them, Beth spotted the large gold coloured gate that blocked the road. A wolf howled close by and Beth’s heart beat rapidly in her chest as she looked at the enormous gate. There were signs scribbled on the gate in white paint, similar to those she had seen on the walls of the den.

Andrea shined on the gate with her torch, touching the white paint that rubbed off on her fingers. “It’s recently done, that means people sure do live on this island. These symbols look ancient though. Look at that,” she pointed to a large drawing of a woman, or what looked like a woman. “It’s like they’re worshipping her! Beth, I fully believe we found Gomeh! This must be the queen! But…why would they still worship here?”

Beth shrugged and laughed, “I don’t know, I wasn’t the one researching it.”

“Well, either we have natives on this island or….”

Beth swallowed, understanding what that meant. Beth licked her lips and nodded, looking for a way to open the large gate. “Andrea look, two handles!” she pointed to two metal rods of rather modern construction and walked towards one, taking the metal bar that was cold to the touch. “Let’s spin them together!”

“They were broken last time,” Andrea muttered and walked towards the other one, grabbing it tightly. “On three.”

Andrea counted to three and they spun the handles; the gate rose skyward. Once it had reached a reasonable height, they stopped spinning the metal bars and walked through the opening. Beth spotted the lower houses of the village as the path went uphill.

Beth breathed out as they climbed up again. Why couldn’t they just get here from the other side of the village?

“Because the middle has collapsed, Beth,” Andrea spoke. Apparently Beth had spoken her thoughts out loud. “We couldn’t have crossed over that part.”

Beth understood and stopped to look around. “Now let’s look for some signs Daryl left us.”

Andrea turned to face her to say something, but her eyes widened and she gripped the handle of her gun. Beth wondered what was wrong, but the clicking of a gun being cocked behind her startled Beth. She spotted men with bows on the roofs and cliffs of the mountain not far from her, pointing their arrows at the two blondes.

“Not so fast, _Darlin’,_ ” the gravelly voice of a man spoke behind her, his accent southern like Daryl’s but more threatening. “You must be Daryl’s lady friend the nut took. Good to see ya alive, most victims he takes don’t end up alive. How’d ya get away?”

Beth turned around to face the man that spoke. Grey hair, mid-fifties she guessed, but still strong looking; with his gun pointed at her head, she didn’t want to risk a fight, especially facing the large number of men that had cornered Andrea and her. She dared to look into the cold, grey eyes of the man with her infuriated, yet scared eyes. She was angry, of course; she was so close to finding Daryl and now she and Andrea were in danger, and it was all her fault. If only she had waited until morning, like Andrea had said, they wouldn’t have run into these men.

 “Where is he?” Beth tried to sound confident but her voice cracked a little. Her fingers - shaking from either adrenaline or fear – were on the safety of her gun, ready to shoot if she needed too. Now wasn’t the time to get scared. She needed to listen to Daryl’s advice. She glanced to Andrea at her side, who had already pointed her gun towards the leader.

“My boys took care of him,” he spoke calmly. “Now ladies, put down the guns. Yer outnumbered. If one of ya shoots, yer both dead and the boss wouldn’t like that. We need girls like ya.”

Beth slowly withdrew her fingers from the gun and looked at Andrea, who hesitantly lowered her gun.

The leader of the group that threatened them cocked his gun, motioning them to put their guns on the ground. Beth unhooked the gun and threw it in the mud as Andrea placed her gun on the ground. The grey-haired man grabbed both guns from the ground, hooking them against his own belt.

“Good. Len, tie this one up and place her with the others, you –“ he pointed at a fat man with the gun. “Get the older woman.” he clicked the safety on the gun and put it away, but his pals – sans the two the older man called Len and the fatty – still had their weapons pointed at the two blondes. The man called Len walked over to her and forced her on her knees, which was putting pressure against her sore ankle and she winced. The man tied her hands in front of her, telling her a _lady_ deserves her comfort. He took her bags, telling her she wouldn’t need them anymore. Len mumbled something about the women being more useful to them alive rather than dead. Beth thought back to Daryl’s note, and realized she and Andrea were important, something like a key to get off the island.

Len pulled her back up onto her feet abruptly, hurting her ankle and muscles even more, and walked her towards a group of familiar faces from her ship and some others she didn’t recognize. Beth was grateful that none of Rick’s group was there. Len sat her down next to Andrea, who just like Beth, had her hands tied in front of her and one of the men looking at her with a perverse grin that sent shivers down Beth’s spine.

The older man glanced back at her. “Name’s Joe, by the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So please tell me what you think! 
> 
> Also, big question. What do guys want next, what's going to happen to Beth and Andrea or what happened to Daryl? So tell me in the comments :)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


	9. How Dangerous Are They?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl ran into a few of the people who live on the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm such a horrible person. I'm so sorry for the late update. The truth is this was finished awhile ago, however I got caught up with school and exams so I totally forgot about it. I'm so so so sorry that you guys had to wait almost 5 months for this.
> 
> And as always, thank you for the comments, kudos and subscriptions. And now also the patience you had with me. Thank you
> 
> Beta'd by Rckyrfk, thank you for fixing my mistakes :D
> 
> Enjoy

Surrounded by a circle of strange men, Daryl knew he was in trouble. He glared at the grey haired man, pointing an arrow in his direction, and in return the grey haired stranger's pals pointed their weapons at him. The stranger started talking to him, trying to coax him into lowering his weapon, telling him that he's no threat to them as long he put the bow away. That if he shot that arrow it would be suicide. The grey-haired stranger told him that they needed man like him, that he was like them.

Daryl cautiously lowered the bow, but kept his guard up and the arrow still under pressure of the bow. The leader of the group introduced himself as Joe then introduced the other men.

"So what if I join you, what then?" Daryl asked, his fingers twitching on the wood of the bow.

"Then you'll be safe, brother," Joe answered with a grin on his face. "The brotherhood rules the island because we admire the goddess."

‘Goddess? What?’ Daryl frowned. ‘These people are crazy.’ Then again Beth had been snatched away from him by a crazy man as well. Beth also told him that dangerous people roam this island and he's one hundred percent sure these are the dangerous people.

"You just need to pass one test before the boss man lets you join the brotherhood," the lanky guy named Len spoke. Whatever the test was, and whoever this 'Boss man' was, it had Len grinning like a fool.

"What is this 'test'?" Daryl replied to them in general, dismay evident in his voice. He didn't like the sound of it and he didn't trust this Len guy.

"Nothing hard," Joe explained, clicking the safety back on the gun. "You just need to lose your... _humanity_. We can't have you feeling sympathetic to the sacrifices we offer to the goddess."

‘Yep, these people are lunatics,’ Daryl tried to hide his discomfort from them. ‘Losing humanity, what does that even mean? What weird test is going to take your humanity? Psychopaths, that's what they are.’

"We're short on members lately," Joe started walking further onto the path, urging Daryl to follow him as he continued speaking. "Most new...arrivals don't pass the test."

"A couple others opted out," another member of the group spoke, Dave or something like that. "This island isn't for the weak ones."

"Why can't we just escape this rock?" Daryl asked, having a bad feeling about it. Beth and her ghost stories were beginning to match up with what these men were saying about their Goddess or whatever.

"Ain't no way we can escape this island," Joe turned around to face Daryl and looked him in the eyes with a serious glare. "The island is cursed, and so is whoever steps a foot on the sand of the beaches, on the rock of the mountains. We are cursed."

"You try to escape and the creatures will get you," a guy from behind them spoke up.

Daryl turned around with a frown, realizing it had to do with the corpse by the walker and the captain on the beach, matching up the words of the journal Beth found. "What creatures?"

"Eh, just something what Mammet calls the _oni_ or whatever," Len commented, sniffing before rubbing his nose. "We just call it creatures, let's keep it in English."

"The boss man says a sacrifice will free us from the curse."

"Sacrifice?" Daryl grunted, remembering what Joe said before. "What kind of sacrifice?"

"A woman. And boss man thinks blondes works the best. But he's getting desperate and asking us to grab any lady," Joe explained to Daryl.

Len scoffed. "He's been on this island longer than most us. Wouldn't be surprised if he totally lost his mind."

"This island does strange things to the mind," another one popped into the conversation. "I swear, that German guy we took in a couple months ago, well I think he has gone nuts."

Joe halted and stopped him and the others. Daryl looked around, taking in his surroundings. He spotted the large golden surface of a gate. It looked old with plants growing all around it, but the golden colour still popped out among all the green and browns.

Behind him one of the guys started talking. "Phew, it's been a while since I've been here. Has that gate even been used in the past weeks?"

"Handles were broken, remember."

"That's why we're here anyway, to fix it. We need access to the mountain village again," Joe explained and turned to two of the men and ordered them to go the gate. Then he turned to two others. "Lou, Dan help them as well. Get that gate fixed A.S.A.P."

Joe walked to the ruins of what once was a bunker and sat down on one of the concrete rocks. He turned his head toward the three remaining men - minus Len - asking them if they could start to collect some firewood.

When the three men walked off, Joe turned to Len. "Could you catch some something to eat for us all? Doesn't have to be much, just a little snack before we go on."

After Len disappeared into the trees, Joe looked at Daryl, telling him to sit down. Daryl looked at the ground, his conscience telling him to just do what the man said, to gain their trust, but he remained where he stood, looking at the ground.

He heard Joe sigh. "Were you on the latest shipwreck?"

Daryl heard the man prod a stick in the dry mud; there hadn't been rain in days. "Weren't any other survivors."

He wasn't going to tell Joe the truth; he didn't trust this group of strangers one bit, especially now that he knows they kidnap women and sacrifice them. He had to keep Beth and the other group of survivors safe.

"Whose bag is that anyway?" Joe asked, pointing at the pink backpack with his head. "No offense, but you don't seem the type to wear a pink bag."

Daryl snorted. "Wasn't alone at first."

"Well, where is she?"

Daryl moved forward and sat down across Joe, looking up at the man before looking at the muddy ground again. "Gone."

"What happened?"

"Was hunting while she cleaned up at the stream, heard her scream and she was gone. Bag on the shore of the stream," don't give any details, Daryl reminded himself. "She's gone."

"Was it near the beach?"

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, t'was about ten minutes walking."

Joe nodded like he understood what he had been saying. "I think I know who took that girl. The nutjob on the beach. He has a den in the mountain there."

Daryl raised a brow, faking his curiosity. He knows Beth is alright, but it would be better for her if these men thought that she's dead or missing. "Where can I find it?"

"She's dead,” Joe started grabbing stones and forming a circle, for the base of a campfire. "That nut kills everyone he takes. Don't bother going to look for her."

Even if Beth was never taken and she was still with him, she would be in real danger if they came across these men. They would take her, probably pursue him to join them like they are doing now or just kill him, and it didn’t sound like they had problems with killing people.

Daryl sighed and lowered his head, staring at the dry clumps of mud from behind his hair that fell in front of his eyes.

* * *

 

The sun has gone down and Daryl didn't even think about using the radio in his bag. He knew Beth would worry her pretty little head, he just felt it, but he couldn't risk endangering her and that group she's with. In his mind, however he knows just knew… _felt_ …that Beth would go look for him. That's _just_ how she is, and now that he had promised to contact her every sundown, she would just _know_ something had happened to him or _would_ happen to him.

'Ya know her for a few days and blondie's all over your mind, ain't she Darlina?' he heard Merle whistle in the back of his mind. 'Hear ye think about her all day.'

Daryl frowned at the voice of his brother in head; it was one of the last things he needed.

'Ya so sure blondie gonna come after ya dumb ass, baby brother?' Merle teased. 'She's a nice looking piece of tail, not so sure if she's going to look for redneck piece of shit like you.'

Daryl stared at the fire, twirling the bone from the piece of rabbit he had eaten as he thought about what Merle had said. He had to agree with him, but Beth's voice saying she missed him kept nagging at the back of his mind. She’d told him about the group she was with and wanted him join to them as well. He needed to get away but he couldn’t just leave these guys. That would be too suspicious and they would come after him; he’d probably end up leading them right to Beth.

A while later, his eyes were nearly dried out from the fire. As he blinked to moisturize his eyes, a small plan formed in his head:  he could leave her signs for her to find…if she came after him. He thought of the journal that was in her bag. It wasn’t a great plan, and he's not sure if she’d ever come this way, but he decided it was worth a try.

Daryl glanced one last time at the now dying fire, a sure sign that this group would be leaving sooner or later. He sniffed and stood up, hoisting both bags onto his shoulders, and looked at the men. "Gotta take a piss."

Len sneered. "With the bags."

Daryl scoffed before replying. "Can't have you stealin’ my stuff, Len."

He stalked into the forest without seeing Len's reaction, and when he was sure he was far enough into the woods, he stopped, looked around for any danger, and took the pink bag from his shoulder. He opened the bag and took out the plastic bag where she had hidden her journal. Daryl took out the notebook and put it between his legs as he searched for the pen in her bag.

After a couple seconds and growling in frustration, he found it sticking out a small tear in the side of the bag. He dropped both bags on the ground, grabbed the journal and opened it, quickly skimming through it for an empty page.

Daryl placed the book against the trunk of a tree, but before he could begin writing the message, he heard a low growl. He dropped the book and pen, not caring where they fell at the moment, just before a large dark shadow pounced at him.

Daryl raised his arms in defence, shielding himself from whatever was attacking him. The weight of the beast knocked him down onto his back and a sharp pain shot through his forearm. Hissing in pain, the man started kicking the large hound off him, reaching out for one of the arrows in the makeshift quiver Beth had sewn onto his leather bag, which dug uncomfortably in his back.

Daryl finally got a grip on one of the arrows and took it tightly in his fist. He gave the wolf a harsh kick against its hind leg and the beast let go of his arm with a yip. Daryl forcefully pushed the pointy end of the arrow through the wolf's eye.

The wolf dropped dead on the ground next to him; Daryl panted as he came down from the adrenaline rush. The pain in his arm throbbed through his whole upper body. ‘Fuck. It probably looks as bad as it feels.’ Still lying on his back, he moved his head to take a quick glance at it. He hissed in pain; the wound looked just as bad as he imagined. He wasn’t sure how bad the damage was, but the hound had gotten him good. 

Daryl sat up and grabbed the pen and notebook, carefully making sure not to bleed too much over it, and scribbled a message on the white paper. He groaned at his handwriting, at least the wolf had attacked his non-dominant hand or the words wouldn't be recognizable. He scowled at his handwriting, looking like chicken scribbles on the paper. It looked out of place, next to the page with Beth's perfect cursive font. Daryl saw some drops of blood on both pages and wiped them off, smearing the red droplets over the white. It wasn’t much better, but the pages wouldn’t stick to each other this way.

Daryl closed the journal and stuffed it back in the plastic bag along with the pen, wincing as he strained his injured arm too much. He folded the loose plastic around the bag and shoved it back into the pink backpack. Much to his dismay, he had gotten some blood on the pink fabric as well. ‘Beth's going to be worried as hell now.’ He hid the bag pack under a bush near a tree and actually _hoped_ that she'd find it.

'Dixons don't hope, Darylina,' Merle's voice rang in the back of his mind. 'Hope hasn't done shit for us."

Well, Merle's right about that one. As a kid, he had hope:  hoping that his pops would stop using him as a punching bag; hoping that the belt that slashed his back would stop coming down. At some point he just stopped hoping, knowing it wouldn't help him. Hope was just some make believe story to keep people going on in life.

Then he looked behind him, the dead wolf lying motionless on the ground, in a small puddle of blood. It would freak Beth out if she saw this. Hell she said she hated dead things the night after they found the bunker. Sighing, Daryl walked to the wolf and dragged it into the bush nearby, making sure to use his good arm. He was tempted to use the other hand because the beast was quiet heavy, but thought better of it when a sharp pain shot through it. It needed to be treated, and soon. With a grimace on his face, Daryl prepared to return to the camp, not willing to face the men inhabiting it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had some trouble writing this one, so I'm sorry it's a little short. I'll try to write the next chapter when I can, I'm also an artist and I have plenty art-projects I need to finish. I have the chapter written out on paper so I only need to rewrite that one. Also remember when I said I won't base this too strongly of Tomb Raider 2013, well...it will now I like it a lot. But it won't be exactly the same as the game some elements will be the same, but some won't.
> 
> Oni- demon in Japanese.
> 
> Please leave me a comment, it would make me super happy!!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> So what do think? Please comment. I'd like to hear your thoughts.


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